In several particulars, it will be necessary to advert to Great Britain and to Ireland separately; but it will be convenient, in the first place, to present a summary of the population of the United Kingdom in 1831 and in 1841, with calculations of the rate of increase per cent. slaves were classed, in respect to age, in | tion, with their means of employment, six divisions. The number of persons their command of the necessaries and blind, and deaf and dumb, were ascer- conveniences of life, the growth of capitained in each class of the population, tal, the extension of trade and manufacand their ages distinguished. No notice tures, and with other indications of the was taken in the census of 1830 of the progress of society. If it shall appear occupations of the people. The census of that in all these respects the means of en1840, on the contrary, is remarkable for joyment have increased more rapidly than its attempt to supply minute details of the population, this review of the national every branch of industry in the United resources will be most encouraging; and States, but in other respects the heads of may be more generally acceptable than a inquiry were the same as in 1830. Not tedious examination of the specific results only were the people classified according of the census itself. As the selection of to their occupations, but estimates were the various subjects of comparison will obtained relative to the annual products be made without reference to any preof industry, under the six heads of conceived theory, the accuracy of the Mines, with nine subdivisions; Agricul- facts may be relied on: and it is hoped ture, with twenty-nine; Commerce, with that no conclusions will be drawn from five; Fisheries, with five; the Forest, them which they do not fairly justify. with five; Manufactures, with forty-six subdivisions. It appears, however, from the American Almanac' (Boston, 1845) that the statistical details of productive industry are not so correct as could be wished. Professor Tucker, however, is of opinion that the errors so balance and compensate each other, as to afford on the whole "an approximation to the truth, which is all that the subject admits of." (Progress of the United States in Population and Wealth in Fifty Years, as exhibited by the Decennial Census. By George Tucker, Prof. of Moral Philosophy and Political Economy in the University of Virginia, Boston, 1843. This is a valuable and useful work, and it is to be regretted that no writer of this country has undertaken a similar task for the five censuses of Great Britain, the results of which are only to be found in the cumbrous volumes of Parliamentary Returns which give the details of each census.) CENSUS OF 1841. In June, 1841, was taken the decennial census of Great Britain and Ireland, the results of which, The Irish census commissioners (Rewhen compared with other statistical re- port, p. xi.) enter into certain calculations, turns, afford the means of examining the by which they raise the per centage of condition and prospects of the country. increase in the population of Ireland from It is not proposed, in this article, to enter 5.25, as actually shown in the returns, to with any minuteness either upon the nearly 12 per cent. If the same prinmanner in which the census was taken, ciples of calculation were applied to the or upon the detailed results appearing in population of Great Britain, the increase the reports of the commissioners; but it is would also be greater; but it will be sufintended to present a comparison of the ficient, for the purposes of this inquiry, if increase and distribution of the popula- the entire population of the United King England 1831. 1841. Increase per cent. 13,091,005 14,995,133 14·5 806, 182 2,365,11 911,603 13 2,620,184 10.7 277,017 188,453 5,016 travel Army, navy, and GREAT BRITAIN. 103,107 124,040 19.6 16,643,028 18,844,434 13.2 7,767,401 8,175,124 5.25 United Kingdom. 24,410,429 27,019,558 10.6 dom, during the ten years from 1831 to 1841, be assumed to have increased 12 per cent. In judging of the condition of the people, the first point which may be investigated is their consumption of those articles which are used more or less in proportion to their means. Unhappily there are no means of estimating the quantities of bread and meat or other staples of food produced in this country; but the quantities of auxiliary articles of food and luxury imported from abroad for home consumption, or manufactured in this country, are fair indications of the means possessed by the people of enjoying the comforts of life. If the increase in the consumption of such articles be in a greater proportion than the increase of population, it may reasonably be inferred that their means of enjoyment have generally increased; or, in other words, that the people enjoyed more comforts in 1841 than in 1831, relatively to their numbers. The quantities of several articles which paid duty for home consumption in the United Kingdom, in 1831 and 1841 respectively, and the rate of increase, will appear from the following table : sumption of articles of comfort and luxury, it is worthy of special notice that the use of intoxicating drinks had apparently decreased. We are not aware of any causes which encouraged the smuggling or adulteration of spirits in 1841 which did not exist in 1831; and yet it appears, from the returns, that the consumption of duty-paid spirits of all kinds, whether British or foreign, had decreased in that interval to the extent of 7.8 per cent. In the same period the consumption of all wines had increased only 3.9 per cent. The consumption of beer cannot be ascertained, but the quantity of hops that paid duty had fallen from 36,500,028 lbs. in 1831, to 30,504,108, or 19.6 per cent.; and of malt, from 40,334,987 bushels to 35,656,713, or 13·1 per cent. From these facts, however, no certain inference can be drawn, on account of the great varieties in the natural produce of these articles in different years, and of the free use of other ingredients by brewers. Our view of the evidences of increased consumption may be closed by the notice of the three articles of timber, cottonwool, and wool, all of which are used solely in giving employment to productive industry. Taking all the different kinds of imported timber, there appears to have been an increase of 37.5 per cent. In cotton-wool there was an increase of 61.1 per cent.; and in sheep and lambs' wool imported, of 78.7 per cent. The next subject of comparison may be the exports of British and Irish produce and manufactures from the United Kingdom, in 1831 and in 1841. fron which the manufacturing and commercial condition of the country, and the enployment of its people, at those periods, may be collected. The quantities and declared value of some of the principal articles of export are exhibited in the table in the following page : On referring to the two last columns of this table, it appears that the value of the exports did not always increase in the same ratio as the quantities; but the total declared value of all British and Irish produce and manufactures exported in 1831 was 37, 64,3721.; in 1841, 51,634,623.; thus showing an aggregate increase of 38.9 per cent. Another evidence of the increased commerce of the country is afforded by the returns of shipping. In 1831, 20,573 ships (British and foreign) engaged in the foreign and colonial trades, entered inwards; of which the total tonnage amounted to 3,241,927. In 1841 the number of ships had increased to 28,052, and the tonnage to 4,652,376; thus showing an increase of tonnage in the proportion of 43.5 per cent. In 1832, 119,283 ships were employed (including their repeated voyages) in the coasting trade, of which the tonnage amounted to 9,419,681. In 1841 the number of ships had increased to 146,127, and the tonnage to 11,417,991, showing an increase of 21.2 per cent. in the tonnage employed. Thus far an increased prosperity can admit of no doubt. It is evident that tonsumption, production, and commerce all increased in a greater ratio than the population. But it may here be asserted that profits were low, and that, notwithstanding the outward signs of prosperity, the capital, available for further enterprises, was not increasing with corresponding rapidity. The evidences of accumulation cannot be of so distinct a character as those of consumption and production; but it may be asked, in the outset, how could so vast an increase in the productive industry of the country, in the value of its exports, in its shipping and commerce, have been supported without prodigious additions to its capital? The best evidence of the quantity of capital in a country is its results. Without a sufficient quantity, production and consumption could not continue to increase: and as capital is likely to be applied to production and consumption as much at one period as at another, all that seems necessary for ascertaining the increase of capital, is to know the 'ncrease of its immediate results. If, in addition to the vast increase of production and consump tion which could only have been supported by a proportionate amount of capital, we see the price of all public securities high, the interest of money low, and capital seeking investment in every specu lative enterprise, and devoted to religious | in 1842 at 9,284,3821. In the absence o. and charitable objects over the whole world, it is absurd to doubt the abundance of capital. But in addition to this indirect evidence of the increase of capital, there are other indications of its accumulation, of a more direct nature, a few of which may suffice: Notwithstanding the discouragement of insurance, caused by a duty of 200 per cent., the sums insured against fire, in the United Kingdom, amounted in 1831 to 526,655,3321.,and in 1841 to 681,539,8397.; being an increase of 29 4 per cent. The accumulations annually made through the instrumentality of life assurance are known to be enormous, but no reasonable estimate can be made of their amount, nor any comparison of the rate of increase in the period of which we are treating. The most interesting evidence of accumulation is presented by the returns of savings' banks. In 1831 there were 429,503 depositors, whose deposits amounted to 13,719,495.: in 1841 there were 841,204 depositors, and the amount of their deposits had increased to 24,474,6891.; so that, both in number and amount, the deposits may be said to have been doubled in this short period of ten years. The capital invested in railways in the same period may safely be estimated at upwards of 60,000,000l. (see First Report on Railways,' 1839, Appendix); and the sums authorised by Parliament to be raised for various public purposes-for roads, bridges, docks, canals, navigations, markets, lighting and improving towns, afford evidence of the abundance of capital which was constantly seeking investment, in addition to its customary employment in commerce and manufac tures. The returns of the assessment of property for the income tax will not present any comparison of the wealth of the country in 1831 and in 1841; but very important results may be deduced from them, which must not be overlooked. The annual value of real property, as assessed to the property tax in 1815, was returned at 51,898,423.; in 1842 it was returned at 82,233,8441.; and the tithes at 1,668,1131. In Scotland the real property was assessed in 1811 at 5,972,5231.; | any intermediate assessment a rough estimate only can be made of the increase in the value of real property between 1831 and 1841; but we are inclined to think it was not less than from 20 to 25 per cent. In 1815 the annual profits of trade in England and Wales were assessed at 35,028,0517. No similar account for 1842-3 has yet been published; but as the actual receipts by government amounted to 1,466,985 at 27. 18s. 4d. per cent.,after exempting all profits under150l. a year, the annual amount of all profits above 1507. a year may be fairly estimated at 50,153,3331.; and after adding a fifth, or 10,000,000l., for profits under 150l., the proportion of increase which accrued between 1831 and 1841 will not be overrated at 20 per cent. The amount of capital upon which legacyduty had been paid in Great Britain, from 1797 to 1831 inclusive, was 741,648,1977.; in 1841 it amounted to 1,163,284,2071. Thus, in this period of ten years, legacyduty had been paid upon a capital of 422,636,0097. 19s. 5d., or considerably more than one-half of the aggregate amount upon which the duty had been paid in the thirty-four preceding years. In 1831 the produce of the stamp-duties upon probates of wills and letters of administration in the United Kingdom amounted to 918,6671.; in 1841 1,012,4817., showing an increase of 10.2 per cent. to These various statements all confirm, more or less distinctly, the conclusion which had been suggested by less direct, but not less conclusive evidence, viz., that the capital of the country appears to have increased in the period of ten years from 1831 to 1841, in a greater ratio than the population; and, consequently, that the funds necessary for the employment of labour and for maintaining the growing population in increased comfort, had multiplied more rapidly than the people for whose use they were available. Having now compared the increase of national wealth with the increase of population, so far as the statistics of consumption, production, and accumulation afford such comparison; a confirmation of the results presented by our analysis is to be found in the Reports of the Census Commissioners, together with many singular facts illustrative of the state and destinies of our country. In following these, however, it will be necessary to consider Great Britain and Ireland separately. The first point illustrative of the condition of the people is, that the increase in the number of inhabited houses in England and Wales since 1831 was two per cent. greater than that of the population. Too much reliance, however, must not be placed upon this bare statistical result, as the quality of the houses may be a more important matter than their positive number; but so far as it goes it is satisfactory. The misery and destitution which prevail in many parts of Great Britain are undeniable; squalid poverty and glittering wealth meet the eye in every street; but the apparent fact of an increased house accommodation should make men hesitate before they declare that poverty is spreading at one extremity of society while wealth is agglomerating at the other. Apart from this direct evidence that one of the most painful results of poverty, the overcrowding of many families into the same houses, though painfully prevalent in Liverpool and some other places, has not generally increased-it may be asked what better proof, amongst many, can be given of the general prosperity of the masses of the people than the application of so vast a capital to productive industry as must have been required for the building of 500,000 new houses in a space of ten years? It is well known that the rate of increase of the population from 1831 to 1841 in England and Wales was apparently less than in the preceding ten years, by 1 per cent.; and if the bare fact of numierical increase were taken as a test of national strength and prosperity, this fact might be deemed a symptom of decay. To this discouraging view, however, a complete answer is given by the commissioners, who ascribe the apparently diminished rate of increase wholly to emigration. "The additional population which would be required in order to make the ratio of increase equal to that of the former decennial period would be 208,998, being 1 per cent. on the population of 1831; and from returns which have been furnished from the Emigration Board, it appears that the total excess of emigration in the ten years ending 1841, compared with the ten years ending 1831, may be estimated at 282,322." (See Preface, p. 11.) Thus, instead of attributing this apparent decrease to the pressure of poverty by which the natural growth of population was checked, we must ascribe it to a cause which is calculated to raise the wages of labour in this country, while it affords to the emigrants a wider field and, we trust, a larger reward for their industry. Another fact of the highest importance is clearly proved, viz.-that the commerce and manufactures of Great Britain alone afford employment for the increasing population. While the increase upon the whole kingdom amounted, as already stated, to 13.2 per cent., the increase in the manufacturing and commercial counties was greatly above that proportion, and in the agricultural counties considerably below it. In Chester the increase was 18.3 per cent.; in Durham, 27.7; in Lancaster, 247; in Middlesex, 16; in Monmouth, 36.9; in Stafford, 24:3; in Warwick, 19-3; and in the West Riding of York, 18.2. In Buckingham the increase was only 6.4 per cent.; in Cumberland, 4.9; in Devon, 7.8; in Dorset, 9.9; in Essex, 86; in Hereford, 2·4; in Norfolk, 5.7; in Oxford, 6-2; in Suffolk, 6-3; in Westmoreland, 2·5; and in the North Riding of York 7 per cent. useless, therefore, to discuss the relative importance of agriculture and manufac tures in the abstract; for agricultural counties cannot support their own population; while the manufacturing and commercial counties find employment for their own natural increase and for the surplus of other counties which the land cannot maintain. It is The relative increase of the agricultural and commercial population is shown by the following proportions per cent. : Agricul- Commer- Miscella tural |