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had listened would be quite right, but if they took the other side (which he contended was the right one), that it was the people who were to be represented quite irrespective of the part of the country in which they lived, it must be unfair for one side to be greatly under-represented simply because of the position in which they happened to live at the time. He believed that with trial the chief difficulties of a proportional system of representation would disappear. He had had a good deal of experience of working class voting in connection with workmen's organizations, and he found that the men were generally able to give an intelligent vote even when quite a large number of names and offices to be filled appeared on the ballot paper.

Mr. BARTLEY, M.P., said that he had been very much struck with the statement in Table XXI that, in 1895, 11.3 per cent. of the elections were won by a majority of under 5 per cent. In the election of 1895, if that 5 per cent. had been taken one way or the other, absolutely the whole of the gigantic majority of the present government would have gone. That was a serious consideration from any party's point of view, and showed how the whole policy of this country might be changed by such a small percentage. Many electors voted irrespectively of politics altogether, and in his own constituency some always voted alternately in successive elections, so as to be quite impartial. Other people he had personally known to vote simply because the candidate happened to have a certain appearance or looked like a friend of theirs. He was perfectly certain that in the south of England, at any rate, more than 5 per cent. of the electorate were swayed backwards and forwards by conditions other than those which concerned the welfare of the country. It was a point not to be overlooked, that the whole programme of an enormous empire depended upon the accident of how a majority of 5 per cent. of electors happened to record their votes. This country spent 10,000,000l. a year upon elementary education, and he would suggest that some portion of that should be spent in instructing people on the elementary principle of the constitution and the duties and responsibilities of the vote. He was much indebted to Mr. Baines for having compiled figures which required most careful consideration.

Mr. N. L. COHEN wished to draw attention to the defective arrangements under which the electoral lists were compiled. There was at present no statutory obligation on the officer who compiled the list to take the initiative of entering voters of any class except ratepayers. With regard to many large classes of voters for instance, those entitled to the service and lodger franchise the initiative of placing them on the list depended upon the energy and public spirit of private societies. Also he believed that, until the English people were prepared to have a more methodical and continuous classification of the population such as obtained in all countries on the continent, no beneficial action was possible in many directions where there was from time

to time a demand for assistance from public authorities. To his mind the logical remedy for the circumstance of a small majority of electors returning a large number of members involved this: That no one should sit in Parliament unless he had in his favour a definite majority of the electors in the district in which he was a candidate.

Mr. BAINES in reply said that, considering the late hour, he would only offer explanations on those points arising in the interesting discussion which were immediately connected with his paper. The plural vote was an inascertainable factor in the compilation, and he thought that it could be set off against, first the omission of the double vote in two-member constituencies, and secondly, the number of qualified persons who, as Mr. Cohen had stated, failed to get registered. In the aggregate, therefore, the proportion quoted was probably near the mark. As to Mr. Cohen's suggestion that registration should be independent of claim, he would only remark that where the vote was held to be of value, the claim to it would be established. He would not repeat the reasons given in the paper for selecting England alone for analysis, but as an illustration of the working of the representative system he considered it preferable to any or all of the rest of the divisions of the kingdom. The inequalities in distribution pointed out by Mr. Kimber were, in some cases, apparently inexplicable. Historical associations and sentiment no doubt retained the seats of the small cathedral towns, and perhaps something of the same sort was influential in regard to the smaller two-member boroughs. The question of one vote one value, however, involved considerations, as Mr. Kimber had shown, into which the speaker could not reasonably be expected to enter on the present occasion. The remarks of Mr. Bartley seemed amply borne out by the statistics put forward, and the prominence of the element of chance in an election had been, he hoped, clearly stated. All that could be said on the other side was that the casual majorities of which Mr. Bartley spoke were not confined to one party or one locality, and, had they been eliminated, the general results would have been but little different. This defect in the system, in fact, had no remedy, unless we fell back upon the combined action of party and the swing of the pendulum! He had finally to thank the Chairman for his kind and complimentary remarks on the paper, and to gratefully acknowledge Sir John Lubbock's testimony to the general political impartiality with which the subject had been handled. On the question of proportionate representation, of which Sir John was probably one of the clearest and most popular exponents, he had only to add one or two remarks. Referring to parliamentary elections only, a majority of votes on one side with a majority of representatives on the other, taking the country in the aggregate, was not in reality as inequitable as it might seem on first sight, because the system was one of local representation, not selection from a general list of candidates for a large area. In the next place, he was by no means inclined to draw conclusions from a return which excluded the uncontested

seats, especially in a case such as that of 1895, when one-fourth of the electorate of England was considered by the professional agents to be so biassed in favour of one party, that it was considered not worth while for their rivals to engage in what Lord Rosebery had termed a hopeless contest. He (the speaker) did not consider it statistically sound to eliminate from the return all seats where the previous majority had been abnormally large, to an extent to deter competition, and then to point to the smaller majorities of the remaining seats as evidence of inadequate public support to the party which held or won them. With regard to the effect of proportional representation in party government, he wished in conclusion to mention that he had made in his paper a special exception as regards Sir John Lubbock and his English colleagues, when asserting that the advocates of the scheme showed a tendency to declare that that system was incompatible with party government. He referred to the writers on the subject in the United States and Canada, where the division of parties was not on the same lines and under the same conditions as in this country. Perhaps it was the same in the canton of Switzerland mentioned by Sir John Lubbock, where the party system had not yet crystallised into permanent shape.

MENTAL and PHYSICAL CONDITIONS among FIFTY THOUSAND CHILDREN seen 1892-94, and the METHODS of STUDYING RECORDED OBSERVATIONS, with SPECIAL REFERENCE to the DETERMINATION of the CAUSES of MENTAL DULNESS and OTHER DEFECTS.

By FRANCIS WARNER, M.D., LOND., F.R.C.P.

[Read before the Royal Statistical Society, 18th February, 1896.
C. S. LOCH, Esq., B.A., Vice-President, in the Chair.]

In the Journal of this Society for March, 1893, a paper is published on an inquiry conducted among 50,000 children seen in schools, 1888-91. That work has been continued by a committee, and, in conjunction with other medical men, I have had the opportunity of examining another 50,000 children seen 1892-94. This committee has recently issued a Report on the 100,000 children seen 1888-94, to which frequent reference will be made. I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to various members of the committee, and in particular to Mr. E. W. Wallis, F.S.S., and Mr. J. W. Palmer, for advice as to statistical methods, and to Dr. Shuttleworth and Dr. Fletcher Beach for their kind and able assistance throughout this work.

Methods of obtaining Data for Actuarial Research.

As explained in my former paper, each of the 100,000 children seen was viewed and examined individually, and a written report was taken of every child presenting any one defect or reported by the teacher as mentally dull. Descriptions of these cases are given entirely in terms indicating facts observed and the teacher's report respecting mental ability. 104 signs or defects observed are named on the card (see p. 127), and fifty-six groups of cases defined by their signs or combinations of signs are given in the Report. The actuarial methods of research have been greatly improved since 1891, and the analysis and tabulation is much fuller and more complete, so that we are now able to study each class of defect of childhood in age-groups and as distributed in the school standards.

The later inquiry (1892-94) yielded results comparable in main particulars with those obtained earlier, as may be seen in the Report-see nomenclature on p. 72, and catalogue on p. 182

"Report on the Scientific Study of the Mental and Physical Conditions of "Childhood, with particular reference to those of Defective Constitution; also "containing Recommendations as to Education and Training." Published by the Committee, 72, Margaret Street, W. 1896.

where similar results of the two inquiries are given in parallel columns.

Definitions of terms used in describing the defects and the groups of cases are similar in significance throughout; when the necessary evidence is obtainable problems are dealt with in similar tables for the two inquiries; but further detailed evidence has been obtained since 1892.

Great pains have been taken to present facts as far as possible in such form as to be comparable with the information and statistics collected by others.

The purpose of the present paper is to explain and illustrate the methods employed in arranging a general statistical statement of the results of observation, and the modes of using such statistics for comparison of groups of children of different inheritance, and living under different circumstances, as well as for the determination in certain cases of the causation of defective conditions, and as furnishing evidence on many propositions.

The Main Classes of Defect.

There are four main classes of defect in which the signs observed have been grouped :

:

A. Defects in development of the body and its parts in size, form. or the proportions of parts. (See Report: Nomenclature, 1——42.) B. Abnormal Nerve-Signs.-Certain abnormal actions, movements, and balances. (See Nomenclature, 43-63.)

C. Low nutrition, as indicated by the child being thin, pale, or delicate.

D. Mental Dulness.-The teacher's report as to mental ability was added to the record of each child noted, and all children stated to be below the average in ability for school work were registered as "dull."

The symbols prefixed above are used in the tables in place of the definition of the class of defect.

There are other classes of defect not grouped as main classes:E. Eye cases; defect or disease.

F. Rickets.

G. Exceptional children.

The number of cases in these main classes are enumerated for the 50,000 children seen 1892-94 in Table Div; also in agegroups for children 7 years and under in Table A vii-xx, for children 8 to 10 in Table B iv, and for children 11 years and over in Table Civ.

Classes E, F, G are not dealt with in this paper; full information as to these children is furnished in the Report.

The cases of children noted as presenting some defect are here

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