There was a funny debate in the House of Commons
last Friday on the second reading of the Census Bill. Everybody wanted his own pet crotchet inserted in the Act. After the usual fuss about the religious census, which Dissenters cannot endure because as they say it " tickets " them, while the two feeblest sects—Catholics and Jews—are proud to be ticketed, and which ended in giving up the idea, Mr. Bass wanted a census of landed proprietors, which would be of no use unless acreage were given, and which exists, we know, in some Blue-Book, though we cannot remember its title ; Mr. Assheton wanted a census of idiots and lunatics ; Mr. Chadwick wanted everything • the Statistical Society wanted ; and Sir J. Lubbock wanted, of all things in the werld, a return of all consanguine- ous marriages, with their results. At least we suppose he wanted their results, for he said he wished to ascertain whether breeding in-and-in was as injurious to human beings as to animals and vegetables. All these gentlemen seem to forget that the Census cannot be taken at all except with the consent of the people, and that the people, if too much bored or puzzled, will resist. The return of ages already annoys them, and is in cone- quence utterly delusive. Of the million of domestic servants, not one in five hundred gives his or her age accurately.
Previous page
