conspicuous. It is difficult at present to realize the idea that, long after Adam Smith s time, the number of the inhabitants of the British empire could only be guessed at as the populousness of China is at the present day ; and, as in all matters of statistics, which have their own simple solution through specific inquiry, the guesses about the population of the empire were not only vague but extravagantly contradictory. During the 18th century, the most trustworthy geographers were generally those who did not venture on an estimate of the population even in those European states which had the best means of enumeration
at their command.The first effort to take a census of the population of Great Britain was made in 1801 ; it did not then extend to Ireland. The success which attended this and the two succeeding efforts was mainly owing to the zeal and ability of Mr Rickman, the assistant-clerk of the House of Commons. Where there is an organization like that of many in the European states for preserving a constant official record of all the fluctuations of the population, not only in their absolute numbers throughout a whole territory, but in the relative numbers in its respective parts as they may be affected by fluctuations, systematic arrangements are thus prepared not only for obtaining a general census at any one moment, but for checking its accuracy and classifying its elements. But to deal at once with the raw material in the self-governed British empire required great ingenuity and sagacity. A census, to be accurate, must be taken on a uniform system, and must be taken simultaneously. Any enumeration going over a tract of time, were it but two days, must be more or less inaccurate, and destitute of the means of correcting its own inaccuracies, j Besides the mere abstract numbers of the people, there is much collateral information to be recorded. This, besides its own intrinsic value, is necessary as a check on the numbers ; since a distribution into elements according to sex, age, social condition, occupation, and the like, affords a self-acting control on the accuracy of mere figures. In a census, indeed, it is a simple rule, that the information returned should be extended as far beyond the main facts as with safety to these it can be carried. The tendency towards complexity in the nature of the returns must j always be checked by the liability of the people at large to make blunders and create confusion where they are required to attest facts not of the most obvious nature, and by the difficulty of getting a number of subordinate officers to understand and carry out a complex classification. Hence there was great difficulty in obtaining a classification according to occupation, from its complex intermixture with the classification according to families. Thus, in the first census, there was an attempt to classify the people under three divisions—(1) persons chiefly employed in agriculture, (2) persons chiefly employed in trade, manufactures, or handicraft, and (3) all other persons not com prised in the two preceding classes. But Mr Eickman found the returns unsatisfactory, from the difficulty of deciding " whether the females of the family, children, and servants were to be classed as of no occupation, or of the occupation of the adult males of the family." In the two subsequent enumerations, the rule adopted was to record the occupation of the head of the family ; but here comes a new element of confusion, in the difficulty of defining the head of a family. Experience, and an anxious desire to combine simplicity and comprehensiveness in the returns, were the only means by which such difficulties could be mitigated.
The enumerations of 1841 and 1851 in England were much facilitated by the uniform system of registration of births, marriages,, and deaths which came into operation on 1st July 1837, and which not only afforded the means of checking the accuracy of the returns, but provided a prompt and skilled machinery accustomed to statistical work. Far more dependence could now be placed on the discretion and skill of the officers to whom the local duties were committed ; and the returns were made more miuuto and complete. In Scotland it was necessary to adopt the method of employing the parish schoolmasters to perform the local duty of enumeratiag the population in the country districts. In Ireland the first attempt at a general census was made in 1811, but it was decidedly unsuccessful. It was repeated in 1821, but went no further than a bare enumeration of doubtful accuracy. The census taken there in 1831 was subject to correction in 1834, to make it the basis of the new system of national education. In the two subsequent enumerations the aid of the admirable constabulary force, and the use of an ordnance survey, nearly complete in 1841, went far to supply the want of permanent local statistical machinery.
The census of 1851 was taken on the 31st day of March, the previously distributed schedules being then collected. They embraced a return of the local and other conditions of the population during the preceding night.
" At the present census," say the commissioners, "it was resolved to exhibit, not merely the statistics, as before, of parishes, and more completely of parliamentary and municipal boroughs, but also of such other large towns in England and Scotland as appeared sufficiently important for separate mention, and of all the ecclesiastical districts and new ecclesiastical parishes which, under the pro vision of various Acts of Parliament, have, during the last forty years, been created in England and Wales. In addition also to the inquiry concerning the occupation, age, and birthplace of the population, it was determined to ascertain the various relationships (such as husband, wife, son, daughter), the civil condition (as married, unmarried, widower, or widow), and the number of persons blind, deaf, and dumb."
Another novel feature in the census of 1851 was an attempt to supply the statistics of the ecclesiastical and educational condition of the country. It stated the amount of church accommodation at the command of each religious denomination ; while a return was procured of those in attendance in the several churches on Sunday, 30th March. The attendance throughout thirty-five religious communities in England on that forenoon was returned as 4,428,338, of which the proportion assigned to the Church of England was 2,371,732. The returns for Scotland, admittedly very imperfect, give a total of 943,951, of which 351,454 belonged to the Established Church. The English report was accompanied by an elaborate history of the several religious communities.
The enumerations in Ireland exhibit statistical novelties of a totally different kind. In 1841 it was resolved, as that country so totally depended on the amount of its agricultural produce, to obtain the statistics of its rural economy. The surface of the country was divided under five heads—arable, plantations, uncultivated, towns, and water; and, with a view to these divisions, a return was made of the character of each farm or other agricultural allotment, with the quantity of live stock and other relevant facts. The attempt was found so successful, that it was renewed with more full effect in 1851, producing 727 tabular folio pages of very valuable information.
Census of 1861.
England, and was taken under the superintendence of the Registrar-General, under the powers conferred by three Acts of Parliament, applicable respectively to England, Scotland, and Ireland. By this census it was found that the population of the United Kingdom was 29,321,288, and that of each of the four divisions of the kingdom was as follows:— England and Wales, 20,228,497; Scotland, 3,096,808,
Ireland 5,850,309; islands in the British seas, 145,674.