We wish we had room for a score more of these masterly sketches-but we hope we have given enough, not to excite attention, for that such gifts employed with such energy must at once command, even were the name on the title-page a new one-but enough to show that we have not observed with indifference this manifestation of developed skill-this fairest wreath as yet won in the service of the graver Muses for the name of SHERIDAN. ART. II.—1. Report of Commissioners appointed to take the Census of Great Britain, and Ireland, in 1841. 4 vols. fol. 1843-4. 2. First Six Annual Reports of the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths, and Marriages-1838 to 1843. 6 vols. fol. 3. Tables showing the Number of Criminal Offenders committed for Trial in the Year 1840; and the result of the Proceedings. Folio. 1841. 4. Statistical Reports presented to Parliament, of the Sickness, Mortality, and Invaliding among Her Majesty's Troops. 4 vols. folio. 1838-1841. 5. Situation Economique de la Belgique, exposée d'après les Documens Officiels. Par M. le Comte d'Arrivabene. 8vo. 1843, 6. Statistique Générale de la Belgique. Par Messrs. Heuschling et Vandermaelin. 8vo. 1841. 7. Aggregate of the Statistics of the United States on the 1st of June, 1840. "EW readers will require to be informed concerning the immense importance which has been experimentally found attaching to such statistical documents as are to be the subject of present discussion. Those who do require such information are referred to our article on the Census of 1831, Q. R. vol. liii. All who are acquainted with such subjects will deeply regret the death of Mr. Rickman, who had been employed as the primum mobile in actuating the machinery for ascertaining the population of the British isles, from the first institution of the inquiry in 1801, to the preparatory arrangements for 1841. In the Act appointing the Census of 1831, the abstracts from the returns were required to be laid before Parliament within ten months after the completion of the Census; but, even under the superintendence of Mr. Rickman's master-mind, the task was not accomplished before the lapse of twenty months. With this lesson before them, the Ministers of the time passed three Acts of Parliament (from the the 10th of August, 1840, to the 6th of April, 1841), the second to correct the blunders of the first, and the third of both; and, with this eight months' experience of the difficulty of regulating how the thing was to be done, allowed only fourteen months for the doing of it; this, too, though the number of details far exceeded that in any former inquiry. The Commissioners (Messrs. Phipps and Vardon) have performed the task in twentythree months, and justly say, No apology is necessary for delay. On the arrival of the schedules in London, each individual, of whichever sex, was presented to us with five distinct propositions attached to each name; making upwards of one hundred millions of separate facts to be reduced into tabular statements by copying-and the results to be formed into geographical districts, by means of more than three hundred and thirty thousand separate calculations, all of which were to be tested by a system of checks.' (Preface, p. 38.) This Preface gives a comprehensive view of the whole subject, exhibiting industrious and accurate analysis, with clearness and acumen in the practical application of results. And the same character may be most justly applied to the Report and Analysis of the Irish Commissioners, Messrs. Hamilton, Brownrigg, and Larcom. In ancient times, that is, as Bacon would say, in the youthful inexperience of the world, the prosperity and power of a State were estimated by the number of its people; but we, the elders of mankind, have learned from experience that a land is prosperous and powerful, not so much in proportion to the multitude of its inhabitants, as to their moral and physical condition. Hence the propriety of adding, to the mere enumeration, various other perquisitions; and we think a brief notice of these, according to the heads into which the Commissioners have divided their prefatory remarks, may interest our readers. In the column containing the area of places it is observed, nothing short of an actual survey could give a more accurate result than has been here obtained by the labours of the late Mr. Rickman.' Nor does it seem of sufficient consequence to justify the enormous expense, which would be incurred by the survey of ground covered with buildings, and the use of which (if any) would soon be abrogated by demolitions, and erections, and by new divisions of property and occupation. The next subject, that of houses, is one of the greatest importance; for on the proportion of the number of inhabited houses to the number of the occupants, must greatly depend both health and moral purity. It must, however, be confessed, that this proportion, though good as a general criterion, is by no means an accurate one; for half a dozen families may live in a house of a dozen dozen apartments, with more of moral respectability and physical comfort, than one family in a cottage of one apartment. And so with regard to individuals, a noble mansion (returned only as one house) may contain forty persons more comfortably accommodated than four in a hut. The two cases are remarkably exemplified in the flats of Scotland and the cabins of Ireland. And the Irish Commissioners have, for the first time, made a laborious and laudable attempt to classify the houses-stating the number of houses and occupants in each class. On this subject, however, the Commissioners do not notice, and perhaps did not know, a peculiarity in the phraseology of the Irish peasantry, which might much affect the result of their investigations; for if a peasant, occupying a cottage of two apartments, were asked how many rooms were in his house, he would answer 'one :' in his dialect the bed-chamber alone is called 'the room.' But though, from this and other obvious causes, the classification must be in a considerable degree arbitrary, it affords at least an approximation to the information sought; and though we can from neither the present nor former mode of calculation obtain a perfectly accurate statement for any one period, yet, the sources of error being nearly the same in all periods, we may obtain a good comparative idea of progress, or retrocession, in this element of social well-being. In England and Wales the number of houses for the accommodation of 100 persons is increased 0.7 per cent. The number of persons in each house was in 1831, 5.6; in 1841, 5·4, or a fifth fewer the conformable results in both cases confirming the accuracy of investigation in each. Even in many of the principal seats of manufacture there is some improvement. In Ireland, too, there is a like indication of some small increase of family comfort. In 1831 the average number of persons in a family was 5.61, in 1841 it was only 5 55; and this is confirmed by the number of houses in 1841 being 7 per cent. higher than in 1831, whilst the increase of population in that period has only been 5.25. This general increase of wholesome accommodation renders more ominous its decrease in Scotland, especially in the mercantile and manufacturing districts. In Greenock the decrease of the number of families to a population of 100, is 3; in Dundee, 1.7; in Glasgow, 1.3; and in Scotland generally, 0.2. These statements are taken from the tabulated particulars at p. 7 of the Commissioners' Preface. But how this is reconcileable with the following paragraph in the same page in respect to houses, is not satisfactorily explained;- By diligent investigation, and by collating the present returns with those of 1831, we have been enabled enabled to arrive at the conclusion, that the proportion which the population of Scotland now bears to the inhabited houses is rather above that exhibited in 1831.' We English folks are accustomed to boast of having the word comfort, and the ideas associated with it, almost peculiarly our own. But we must yield to our Belgian neighbours in the sacrifice made to acquire it, insomuch, at least, as that depends on a more or less crowded domicile. For with more than double the density of English population, and consequently with twice the temptation to crowd their houses, the number of persons to a house is only 6, and to a family only 5;* whilst in England we have 5.52; to a house in London, 7·4; in Lancashire and Middlesex, 7.5. The next division of the subject is that of persons, the especial matter of investigation in a Census, all others being merely collateral. The general result may be thus tabulated :— We see here, in every territorial division, an increase of population; with a diminished rate of that increase, except in the smaller divisions of Wales and the Channel Islands. But in such, when intimately connected with neighbouring larger districts, the migrating population necessarily bears a larger proportion to the stationary inhabitants, and renders, therefore, uncertain any conclusion concerning the natural fecundity. The general diminution in the rate of increase is, however (contrary to antiquated prejudices), by no means matter of regret, under present circumstances. Those circumstances, indeed, may * Heuschling and Vandermaelin, p. 42. be be justly deplored; but, till they alter, till we have extended means of employing capital, and consequently of adequately remunerating the quantity of labour now in the market, any increased rate of population could only add to the present very general complaint of either an absolute want of employment, or of the necessity of labouring for a pittance insufficient to the common comforts of existence. It is not strange that the uneducated, and therefore ignorant and unreflecting labourer should impute this state of things, not to improvident marriage, or lavish expenditure of wages when they happen to be high, but to the unfeeling cupidity of the capitalist refusing to employ more labourers, or give the means of decent livelihood to those he does employ. But it does seem passing strange, that educated persons should join in this senseless cry; and not perceive, that the capitalist could only sell more goods than the market now absorbs, by reducing the price of his commodity and that, if he reduce the sale-price, he must also reduce the price of production-that is, the wages of the labourer; or he must reduce that very capital, which enables him to employ labour at all. The evils of society' (says Professor Smyth, in his admirable Lectures on the French Revolution, vol. iii. p. 299) are more readily seen than the inevitable necessity of them can be understood. Let us endeavour, however, to make intelligible a case, which has of late attracted the greatest attention, and thrown the greatest obloquy on the class of capitalists concerned,—the case of the work-people employed by tailors, milliners, dress-makers, and proprietors of warehouses for ready-made articles, &c. A benevolent zeal for the distressed labourers has, like all enthusiasm, engendered a spirit of injustice; and the employers have been accused of both receiving unreasonably high profits, and paying unreasonably low wages. In the first place, it is highly improbable that the profit on the employment of capital in these ways is higher than the average profit of other master-manufacturers. Any such permanent inequality must ever be prevented by the same principle of competition, which has obliged the operatives in these occupations to accept low wages. For they, being principally females, capable of few other employments, become craving applicants for these. Here the benevolent enthusiast exclaims:- But why should the capitalist live in idleness, and luxury, whilst making such miserable remuneration to his work-people, that they may be said rather to starve, than live upon it? Now this is confounding two entirely distinct principles-charity and economy: for it must be confessed that economy, whether political or domestic, has nothing to do with charity. And the capitalist may reply,- If you have such compassion for these poor people, as to diminish your own |