It is frequently remarked that the science of statistics, in its various branches, is, like the law, “gloriously uncertain,” and accordingly, it is alleged that, from the same set of figures, two intelligent men can draw very different conclusions. The same assertion may, perhaps even more truly, be made regarding facts, which, although considered somewhat “sair to ding,” are very differently interpreted by different individuals. Interested motives, preconceived opinions, and illogical conceptions constitute some of the principal causes of perverted conclusions; and both facts and figures are very liable to misrepresentation. Hence the tendency in many quarters to distrust the deductions drawn from figures of almost every kind, more especially in the columns of official reports and the prospectuses of commercial enterprises. Even among intelligent and educated men, some strangely confused ideas prevail respecting statistics, many such persons erroneously supposing that every class of numerical facts ought to possess an equal amount of certainty and precision, similar to what is produced by the abstract figures of an arithmetical process.