11 of the nation. Under the limited powers conferred by Congress, the active and intelligent officers who have successively filled the office of Superintendent, and particularly Mr. Kennedy, who participated in one or more of the previous sessions of the International Statistical Congress, have earnestly exerted their best efforts to render the inquiries authorized by law, useful not only to the country, but to the cause of statistical science. It is confidently believed that the enlightened labors of the present body, may do much to induce the legislative authorities of the United State to recognise a competent Bureau of Statistics as a national necessity, and thereby place their country on an equality, in that respect, with the most intelligent nations of the world. Even then, some time must elapse, before it will fully attain that power of acute, comprehensive and thorough analysis in the various branches of statistical inquiry, which has so distinguished the eminent European statisticians, in their valuable labors in the International Statistical Congress during the present and the preceding sessions. It is cause for general congratulation that those who conduct the public affairs of nations have become generally convinced, that a State cannot be wisely or safely governed, without an accurate knowledge of quantities. Abstract theories and historical traditions doubtless have their use and their proper place, but statistics are the very eyes of the statesman, enabling him to survey and scan with clear but comprehensive vision, the whole structure and economy of the body politic—to adjust, in finest harmony all its varied functions—to regulate and invigorate the healthful circulation of every artery and vein, from the central, vital trunk to the most remote and delicate articulation. Not only so. In this modern world where steam has abolished space, the statesman, to deserve the name, must carefully survey the statistics of all the nations that commerce can ap
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=