The Sun.
London, England, 1869-11-18 00:00:00

STATISTICAL SOCIETY.

An inaugural address on the progress and pre-
sent position of statistical inquiry was delivered
last night by the President (Mr. Win. Newmarch,
F.R.S.), at the society's rooms, and was very nume-
rously attended. Mr. Newmarch passed iu review
the whole range of statistical inquiry, and divided
it into eight compartments :-1, Vital Statistics ; 2,
Census ; 3, Pauperism, Police, and Crime ; 4, Fi-
nance (including taxation, funding savings banks,
currency, life assurance) ; 5, Conveyance ; 6,
Trade ; 7, Education ; Cost and:Effects of Central
and Local Government.. lie remarked that on the
first three heads we are in this country at present
in advance of all other communities. We have
arrived at certain ultimate units in vital statis-
tics ; for example, we know as a matter of
absolute certainty that in ordinary years the
rate of mortality in England and Wales is 22.48
per 1,000 per annum of the mean population of the
year ; that the marriage rate is 16.92 per 1,000,
and the birth-rate 35.34 per 1,000. We must also
justly claim superiority over
.every other country
on the fourth division of fiscal and financial statis-
tics. England is, moreover, the native land of life
insurance, and the pre-eminence of this island has
been honourably maintained. Under the head of
conveyance we have amassed abundant materials,
but almost the last scientific discussion and analysis
of the facts was Dr. Lardner's book, which ap-
peared more than 20 years ago, and is now out of
date ; but particular points of railway economy
have been well discussed in productions sine that
date, and particularly in the Commission of the
Duke of Devonshire, which sat in 1865-67. As
regards the trade returns, he considered that
they were susceptible of improvement, but that
there is no single branch of our public statistics
in which more considerab'e- improvement has
occured during the List twenty-five years. Al-
though there are many defects, the framework
of our system is entitled to high commendation,
and should not be disturbed except after full and
public inquiry, and not abolishing or enfeebling the
machinery, but by consulting its action and en-
larging its power. Mr. Newmarch next passed to
the fields of statistical research, which require early
attention, including among them :-1. The annual
consumption by different classes and by the nation
of the chief articles of food ; 2, the annual produc-
tion of the country ; 3, the comparative wages,
house rent, and cost of living in different parts of
the country ; 4, the total annual income and earn-
ings and accumulations of different classes, and of
the country as a whola ; 5, the relative taxation of
different classes in the country as compared with
the same classes in other foreign countries, the com-
petition of which England has to understand and
meet. Besides these he enumerated other groups
of subjects, comprising warlike armaments, public
hospitals, charitable trusts and endowments, reli-
gious churches and sects, maintenance of the poor,
schools, emigration, India, French Treaty, United
States' protective tariffs and specie payments,
and the gold discoveries, besides the philosophical
determination of the laws of statistical inquiry.

A STORY OF FAIIRAGUT SPOILED BY THE OLD
Eno.—Admiral Farragut was recently "interviewed" by
a reporter of a San Francisco paper. During the conver-
sation that ensued, the subjoined about the current mast-
head story of the Hartford came out—the hero spoiling
very effectually the mole-dramatic character imputed to
him on the occasion of the reduction of the defences of
Mobile harbour. Reporter—Then, sir, if the story is a
fiction, it has been allowed to remain uncontradictod
for a long time. Will you, Admiral, be kind enough
to toll me to what cause or incident its origin is
duo ? Admiral - With pleasure. It will afford you an
evidence of how a well-told and plausible story fre-
quently repeated becomes universally accepted as a fact.
At the commencement of the battle of Mobile bay, for the
purpose of obtaining tho best view of the movements of
the enemy, and the better to govern the fleet under my
command, I got into the lower part of the rigging of the
Hartford, just above what is known as the hammock railing.
Reporter—Was not your position fraught with great peril ?
Admiral -I did not think so; but it was fraught with
groat discomfort. As the smoke ascended from the heavy
cannonading my view became more obscured, and I
was compelled to ascend the rigging gradually, until
finally I got some little distance beneath the main-
top. At this juncture, Captain Percival Dayton--
Reporter—Your fleet captain, was he not ? Admiral
—Yes, sir ; Captain Dayton, fearing, ho said, that
I might fall overboard in case of being wounded,
called one of the quartermasters, and cutting oil a piece of
the signal halyards (a small rope), ordered Lim to bring it
up to me, that I might render my position more secure.
With this rope I attached myself to the rigging. Reporter
—You were not near the mast-head, then ? Admiral—l
was not.

Edward Biggins, now commanding the Cuban
man-of-war Cuba, is aVirginian by birth, bu' a Louisianian
by adoption. He was appointed to the United Statee
Navy, when 13 years of age, by Gen. Jackson. In 1848 he
was promoted to a lieutenancy, and served through the
Mexican war upon the Pacific coast, commanding a com-
pany of Lailo, sunder Commodore Stockton, aLd distinguish-
ing himself as an oftioer. At the breaking out of the civil
war he was made Lieut.-Col. of the T wonty-soc.tA Regi-
inert of Louisiana, Artillery in the Confederate Army, and
in the attack of• Admiral Porter's fleets he commanded
Forts Jackson and St. Philip, and after a d -•sparate and
gallant defence surrendered to that officer. Ater the sur-
render of New Orleans ho was promoted to colonel, and
placed in command of a division of infantry, light and
heavy artillery, and cavalry, upon the Yazoo River. Dur-
ing the siege of Vicksburgh ho wits placed in command
of the heavy river batteries, and won, by his ability, the
highest praise. Commodore Higgins is about 10 years of
age, fine looking, and possesses agreeable manners. As a
sailing master he occupies a high position, having in 1856
commanded the Vanderbilt in the quickest trip across the
ocean that had, up to that time, been made. He served for
six years as commander of the U.S. mail steamer Hernuum,
and his voyages were remarkably pleasant and quick.