CORN. Average Prices of Corn per Imperial Quarter in England and Wales, during each Week of the Second Quarter of 1852; together with the Average Prices for the whole Quarter.-(Continued from p. 191.) Foreign and Colonial Wheat and Wheat-Flour imported in each of the Months ending 5th April, 5th May, and 5th June, 1852; the Quantities Entered for Home Consumption during the same Months; and the Quantities remaining in Warehouse at the close of them.-(Continued from p. 191.) Fluctuations in the Stock and Share Market during the Months of January, February, and March, 1852.-(Continued from p. 95.) Average Price of Meat as sold in Smithfield Market in the Months of January, February, and March, 1852.-(Continued from p. 95.) [From Returns sent to the Board of Trade.] Fluctuations in the Stock and Share Market during Months of April, May, and June, 1852. Average Price of Meat as sold in Smithfield Market in the Months of April, May, and June, 1852. [From Returns sent to the Board of Trade.] CURRENCY. BANK OF ENGLAND. An Account, pursuant to the Act of the 7th and 8th Victoria, c. 32, for the Weeks ending on Saturday, the 3rd April, the 1st May, and the 5th June, 1852.—(Continued from p. 192.) Average Aggregate Amount of Promissory Notes of Country Banks, which have been in Circulation in the United Kingdom, distinguishing the several Banks, or Classes of Banks, by which issued in each part of the Kingdom, during the months ending 17th April, the 15th May, and the 12th June, 1852.-(Continued from p. 192.) QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. DECEMBER, 1852. On the Productive Industry of Paris. Communicated by the late G. R. PORTER, Esq., F.R.S., Secretary to the Board of Trade. [Read before the Statistical Section of the British Association at Belfast, THE successive Governments of France have, for a long time, kept on foot establishments charged with the collection of statistical information, and have been accustomed to publish, from time to time, the result of the labours thus bestowed. It would not be possible, with any presumable degree of accuracy, to determine the amount of influence which the knowledge thus acquired has exercised over the governments or legislatures of that country. To all outward appearance that influence has not been great, since the changes of system that might reasonably have been expected to follow from a better acquaintance with the condition of the various classes of the people have not been experienced; such changes as have occurred being clearly assignable to political, apart from scientific, causes. However this may be, we may reasonably hope that a time will come in which the knowledge of facts, collected at various times, and under different circumstances, may be allowed to produce its legitimate fruits; and when the labours of those who have gone before may, in matters of statistical research, as well as in other branches of knowledge, show the way to their successors for reforming and improving, wherever needed, the faulty legislation which may have impeded the progress, and interfered with the well-being, of the great mass of the people. The system of centralization for which France has long been, and still is, remarkable, and which has mainly confined to its metropolis whatever administrative talent existed in the country, has apparently been the cause of so little statistical information relating to the people generally having been rendered available; and may further be the reason of that little having presented so slight a claim to the confidence of men accustomed to the examination and the use of such researches. This remark, however, cannot properly be made to apply to those researches when their object should be confined to the facts and condi VOL. XV. PART IV, U |