PROGRESS OF PUBLICATION.
The Statistical Journal, for October 1837, is the first number of a work which, properly conducted, we should gladly see suc- ceed. Our wishes, however, outrun our hcpes ; for such an un- dertaking requires both a scientific connexion and a pecuniary support, which, in these days of quid pro quo, it is not likely to get. The public documents of the most civilized nations of the world might be procured, but at a heavy expense for carriage, even if the documents were given : the different statistical societies might furnish copies of their papers, but the authors would pro- bably not patiently bear the condensing process to which they must be submitted : and much of' labour and talent would be me quisite to select the important from the unimportant, and arrange what was selected in an intelligible form. After all, its use would be rather speculative than practical : the statesman and the econo- mist would find in it a quarry of raw material; but whether they form a class sufficient to support such a work, is questionable; and the people will buy nothing that does not please them or produce immediate gain.
The contents of the number before us are not of a very rare or striking kind. The leading papers are a reprint of the last Re- port of the Corporation Commissioners relative to the City of London ; a digest of some of the best works on French statistics; a paper emanating from the Home Office, professing to give the Statistics ot' Crime in England ; the commencement of what seems a judicious article on the trade between Great Britain and America ; and an extract from the Colonist, a Sydney paper, in which the financial statistics of New South Wales are elaborately examined. From the increase in nearly every branch of revenue, and the great advance in the aggregate amount, the writer deduces the prosperity and profits of the colony ; but be omits an item on the other side of the accounts, which might give rise to a different conclusion—the sums which have been expended upon it by Great Britain. From the specific facts of this paper. we see that fines levied by courts of justice for crimes are rapidly inereasing ; the receipts for 1836 having exceeded those of 1835 by 1,025/., and the aggregate increase on the last five years being
2,5931. Licences to retail spirits also show a particular and general increase: but the rents of pews in churches are falling off. The most important head, however, is the receipts on the sale of Crown lands. The regulation—an impesfect one—did not take effect till l '31; when stagnation it' not ruination was predicted from this cheek to Colonial jobbing. The figures, however, show the value of the W AKEFIELD principle. In le31, the produce from the sales was 3,6171.: in Ita34i, 1:12,39Iii.; and the total receipts for the six years was 3os,s3o/. Yet the Whig Government, acting under the Colonial Offce,resiet the introduc- tion of a law by e inch this great source of public revenue should be placed upon a uniform and regular system throughout our Colonies.
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