John Towne DansonSource: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Vol. 61, No. 2 (Jun., 1898), pp. 372-374Published by: Wiley for the Royal Statistical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2979736 .

Accessed: 25/06/2014 08:24

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Wiley and Royal Statistical Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toJournal of the Royal Statistical Society.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.90 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 08:24:55 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

37 2 Miscellantea. [June,

them. On the 28th December, 1883, MIr. Gladstone, writing from Hawarden, expressed the pleasure with which he had read the address, and his belief that " in form and substance it was probably the best answer to Mr. George."

Mr. Gladstone has not contributed to the Transactions of the Society, and we need not, in this place dwell on his career or his at,tainments; that has been fully done elsewhere. His fame will endur-e more as one of our ablest financiers than as a great statistician. Bnt we can hardly fail to remember that accurate and exhaustive statistics must be the ultimate foundation of every enduring system of finance.

II.-Mr. John Towvne Danson.

THE death of this gentleman, at the ripe age of 81 years, recalls the memory of one of the most energetic alnd devoted. students of statistics at a date about fifty years gone by. The saying, "there were giants in those days," might well be applied to him.

Wlhen a student at the Middle Temple, he was chiefly employed as a journalist, and was one of the editorial staff selected by the late Charles Dickens in the autumn of 1845 for conducting the Daily Newvs. Of the three leading articles in its first number, Mr. Danson wrote two. On the financial failure of that paper its management passed to Mr. Dilke, the then proprietor of the Athenceum, and Mr. Danson transferred his services to the Globe, at that time and for some years afterwards the organ of the Whig party. In days wlhen the governing classes were feeling their way towards the adoption of free trade, a firm and clear yet candid and considerate discussion of the numerous practical difficulties attending this great change of policy was essential to its political suiecess. Mr. Dansoni wrote for about five years all the leaders of the Globe touching financial and commercial topics, and may be said to have largely aided in giving to the policy of the party a continuouas and consistent aspect.

About this time Mr. Danson became private secretary to Mr. (afterwards Sir) Benjamin Hawes, a leading politician of the day. Recent events lend additional interest to the fact that Mr. Danson was engaged in a controversy with Sir William Moleswortb, another prominent politician, who regarded our colonies as something to be cut adrift as soon as practicable; in fact, as being burdensome, and involving serious responsibilities, ignoring the invaluable chances of employment they afford, without which our teeming popalation would fare but ill.

In 1848 his personal intimacy with Mr. Tooke, the author of the History of Prices, led to a continuance of that work. Mr. Danson contributed all the figures contained in vol. iv, and a very considerable portion of those in vols. v and vi, in tht- authorship of which section of the work Mr. Newmarch had the

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.90 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 08:24:55 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

1898.] Mr. John Towne Dantson. 373

chief share. At the time of his death Mr. Danson was engaged in continuing, the history of commercial prices down to the present time, and it is hoped that this work, covering a most important commercial period, may ere long be completed and issued.

As an active member of the Statistical Society, and an original thinker, he contributed various papers to its Transactions, amongst which one or more were on the subject of the "Growth of the Human Body."

In 1853 failing health compelled him to adopt a country life, and he began farming somewhat largely at Barnston, in Cheshire. Here, as ustual, his indefatigable labours procured success, and he became a prominent member of the local agricultural society. Regaining, his strength, and having his hands comparatively free, he commenced practico at the Liverpool bar; and a contest arising as to the Exchange Buildings there, he framed and conducted the case of the opponents of the old compa-ny, and obtained the Act under which the present company was formed.

In 1860 he projected anid eventually founded the Thames and Met'sey Marine Insurance Company, Limited, the first marine insurance company started out of London. After taking a leading pars in its management, first as secretary and afterwards as under- writer, daLring a period of more than twenty years, he retired froni all business to his late residence at Grasmere.

Besides the papers he contributed to the Transactions of the Statistical Society, he wrote some for the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, and a series of valuable pamphlets upon British and foreign underwriting. He also produced one or two works onl economical questions, advocating always thrift, self-help, and industry. His latest published works are Our Next War, con- taining a luminous sketch of the course of underwriting premiums in the eventful years 1805-15, and Our Comnmerce in War and how to Protect it, showing a remarkable acquaintance with the principles which should actuate public policy in relation to the capture of private property at sea in time of war.

Mr. Danson was called to the bar in 1847, and was, early in the fifties, appointed a member of the Royal Commission on Land Titles.

Mr. Danson's work on political economjy was the outcome of a series of lectures delivered by him at the Liverpool Institute in the session 1875-76. These were printed and published in a book form, and in due course became quite out of print. In 1886 however the work was entirely re-cast and published by the Clarendon Press, -uDder the title of The. Wealth of Households, which had a considerable sale, and is often referred to by economists. THOMAS A. WELTON.

Appended is a list of his principal writings:- 1. Lands. General map for England and Wales. la. Accounts of the Bank of Englanid, 1847. 2. A contribution, &c. Prices cf Food, 1848. 3. Colonies. Speeclh of Sir W. Molesw ortl, 1848. 4. Observation thereon. J. T. D., 1848.

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.90 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 08:24:55 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

374 Miscellanea. [June,

5. Commercial Statistics of our Colonies, 1827-46. 6. Our Commerce with Russia, 1854. 7. To Members of Lancaslhire and Clhesliro Historic Society, 1855. 8. On Farming agreements, 1855. 9. Wirral Agricultural Society. The Cental, 1856.

10. Lancashire and Cheshire Historic Society. Opening Address, Nov., 1856. 11. ,,. Concluding ,, 1857. 12. Liverpool and Manchester. Ages of Population, 1857. 13. Liverpool Exclhange Buildings. Report, 1858. 13a. Bye-Laws of Liverpool Exchange Buildings Company, 1859. 14. Foreign debtors, 1858. 15. To Directors of Joint Stock Companies, 1858. 15a. Population of Lancaslhire and Chesliire, 1858. Parts 1 and 2.1 16. ,, 1859. Part 3. 17. Social Science Association. Liverpool address, 1859. 17a. Population of Lancashire and Cheshire. Part 4 and last., 18. Liverpool Chamber of Commerce. The Ceiital, 1859. 19. Statistical inquiry, 1859. 20. Country Dwellings for Town Labourers, 1859. 21. Transfer of Goods on Sale, 1860. 22. Chambers of Commerce and the Government, 1860. 23. American Civil War, 1861. 24. The common truths of Political Economy, 1861. 25. Deposits the basis of Banking, 1862. 26. The Growtlh of the Human Body, 1862. 27. Liverpool Institute. Rev. Joshua Jones, 1862. 28. ,, Speeclh, October, 1862. 29. ,, Address, February, 1663. 30. The Uses of Discussion. December, 1863. 31. Liverpool Institute. Speeclh, October, 1863. 32. Landowner and the State, 1864. 33. Foreign Debtors in England, 1869. 34. Bank v. Caslh-Box, 1875. 34a. Growth of Human Body, 1881 (Journal of the Statistical Society,

vol. xliv, p. 660, 1881). 35. Report of Council of Queen's College, 1881. 36. Reasons for establishing a Marine Insurance Company in Liverpool, 1859. 37. Marine Re-insurance, 1863. 39. The New Marine Insurance Companies, 1866. 40. Jettison and Geeneral Average, 1869. 41. Liability of Sliipmaster wlhen Pilot is oii Board (" Spindrift "). 42. The Pilotage of Liverpool, 1871. 43. The Eastern Trade Bill of Lading, 1872. 44. About Lloyd's, 1872. 45. The proposed Legislation touchlinlg Mniritime Contracts, 1876.

Also Reports on Uiiderwriting in England and Abroad, annually from 1872 to 1884.

1II.-On Census Matters discussed at the St. Petersburg Meeting of the International Statistical Institute, 1897. By J. A. BAINES, C.S.T.

MAJOR CRAIGIE requested me to supplement his paper on the work of this Congress with a few remarks upon the subjects con-

I Theso were the joitit work of J. T. Danson and T. A. Welton.

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.90 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 08:24:55 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions