on the modern system were laid in Europe
towards the middle or end of the 17th century. Sweden led the way, by
making compulsory the parish record of births, deaths and marriages,
kept by the clergy, and extending it to include the whole of the
domiciled population of the parish. In France, Colbert, in 1670, ordered
the extension to the rural communes of the system which had for many
years been in force in Paris of registering and periodically publishing
the domestic occurrences of the locality. Five years before this,
however, a periodical enumeration by families and individuals had been
established in the colony of New France, and was continued in Quebec
from 1665 till 1754. This, therefore, may be considered to be the
earliest of modern censuses.

Efforts have been almost unceasingly made since 1872 by statistical
experts in periodical conference to bring about a general understanding,
first, as to the subjects which may be considered most likely to be
ascertained with approximate accuracy at a census, and secondly--a point
of scarcely less importance--as to the form in which the results of the
inquiry should be compiled in order to render comparison possible
between the facts recorded in the different areas. In regard to the
scope of the inquiry, it is recognized that much is practicable in a
country where the agency of trained officials is employed throughout the
operation which cannot be expected to be adequately recorded where the
responsibility for the correctness of the replies is thrown upon the
householder. The standard set up by eminent statisticians, therefore,
may be taken to represent an ideal, not likely to be attained anywhere
under present conditions, but towards which each successive census may
be expected to advance. The subjects to which most importance is
attached from the international standpoint are age, sex, civil
condition, birthplace, illiteracy and certain infirmities. Occupation,
too, should be included, but the record of so detailed a subject is
usually considered to be better obtained by a special inquiry, rather
than by the rough and ready methods of a synchronous enumeration. This
course has been adopted in Germany, Belgium and France, and an approach
to it is made in the decennial census of Canada and the United States.
Religious denomination, another of the general subjects suggested, is of
considerably more importance in some countries than in others, and the
same may be said of natio