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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 consumption, 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 consumption 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 any intermediate assessment a rough estiworld, it is absurd to doubt the abundance mate only can be made of the increase in of capital. But in addition to this in- the value of real property between 1831 direct evidence of the increase of capital, and 1841; but we are inclined to think there are other indications of its accumu- it was not less than from 20 to 25 per lation, of a more direct nature, a few of cent. In 1815 the annual profits of trade which may suffice: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 1,466,9857, at 21. 188. 4d. per cent.,after exempting all profits under1 50%. 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 150, the proportion of increase which accrued between 1831 and 1841 will not be overrated at 20 per cent.

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 manufactures.

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 82,283,8441.; and the tithes at 1,668,113. In Scotland the real property was assessed in 1811 at 5,972,5231.;

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 1.163,284,207Ĺ Thus, in this period of ten years, legacyduty had been paid upon a capital of 422,636,009l. 198. 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 to 1,012,481l., showing an increase of 10.2 per cent.

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 tacts 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 numerical 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, 24-7; in Middlesex, 16; in Monmouth, 36.9; in Stafford, 24:3; in Warwick, 19.3; and in the West Riding of York, 18.2. Ín Buckingham the increase was only 6-4 per cent.; in Cumberland, 49; in Devon, 7-8; in Dorset, 9.9; in Essex, 86; in Hereford, 2·4; in Norfolk, 57; in Oxford, 6:2; in Suffolk, 6-3; in Westmoreland, 2.5; and in the North Riding of York 7 per cent. It is useless, therefore, to discuss the relative importance of agriculture and manufactures 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.

The relative increase of the agricultural and commercial population is shown by the following proportions per cent. :Commer- Miscellaneous., 30

Agricul

tural

cial.

1831 1841

28.

42

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But in 1831 the returns referred to families, and in 1841 to individuals; and as a greater number of children are employed in manufactures than in agriculture, the difference may have been slightly augmented by this form of enumeration.

A still more important point of comparison is the relative increase of different classes of occupations in the same period of 10 years from 1831 to 1841. A comparative return of the Commissioners (Preface, p. 21) includes males only aged 20 years and upwards, and exhibits the following results :-The number of occupiers and labourers in agriculture had decreased in that period from 1,251,751 to 1,215,264; but the Commissioners explain this result by supposing that numerous farm-servants had been returned in 1841 as domestic servants instead of as agricultural labourers. Persons engaged in commerce, trade, and manufacture had increased from 1,572,292 to 2,039,409 (or 29.7 per cent.): capitalists, bankers, professional and other educated men, from 216,263 to 286,175 (or 32 3 per cent.): labourers employed in labour not agricultural had decreased from 611,744 to 610,157: other males 20 years of age, except servants, had increased from 237,337 o 392,211: male servants 20 years of age and upwards had increased from 79,737 to 164,384, including, however, as already noticed, many farm-servants. For the purpose of instituting a just comparison of the relative increase of particular employments, it must be understood that the total number of male persons 20 years of age and upwards (exclusive of army, navy, and merchant seamen) had increased, in this period of ten years, from 3,969,124 to 4,707,600 (or 18.6 per cent.). Making due allowance for the probable error in the return of agricultural labourers, we are forced to conclude that that class had either not increased at all or had increased in a very small degree: and that the class of labourers not agricultural had positively diminished: while capitalists, bankers, professional and other educated men, had increased 32.3 per cent.; persons engaged in trade and in manufactures 29.7 per cent.; and domestic servants 106 per cent., or allowing for farm-ser

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vants, say 90 per cent. Thus the two classes who earn the lowest wages were alone stationary or retrograde: the highest class in wealth and intelligence had increased 32.3 per cent.; and the domestic servants, whose numbers are a certain indication of the means of their employers, had increased 90 per cent. Nor must another important fact be omitted in connexion with the decrease in the class of labourers, viz. the immense numbers of Irish who notoriously perform the most laborious parts of industry. In Lancashire the persons born in Ireland formed, in 1841, 6.3 per cent. upon the whole population; in Cheshire, 3 per cent.; in Middlesex, 3.6 per cent.; in Ayrshire, 73; in Dumbartonshire, 11; and in Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, upwards of 13 per cent. It would seem, therefore, that the class of British labourers are gradually raising themselves into a higher condition and more lucrative employments; and that the demand for the lowest description of labour, caused by their withdrawal from it, is supplied by their Irish brethren.

The number of female domestic servants increased in Great Britain from 670,491 in 1831, to. 908,825 in 1841, or 35 per cent.

In concluding this statement of the industrial occupations of the people of Great Britain, it is gratifying to learn that the whole of the "almspeople, pensioners, paupers, lunatics, and prisoners" amounted in 1841 to 1.1 per cent. only upon the population.

We may now pass to some of the most material facts disclosed by the census of Ireland. The constant migration of labourers from the agricultural counties of England to the manufacturing districts, and the extensive enigration of the last ten years, have been already noticed; and precisely the same circumstances are observable in Ireland. In the period from 1831 to 1841 no less a number than 403,459 persons left Ireland, either to settle in the populous towns of Great Britain or to emigrate to the British Colonies or the United States; while an extensive migration was taking place, within Ireland itself, to Dublin and to other commercial and manufacturing places.

The returns of house accommodation | similar classification had ever been in Ireland present a very lamentable adopted before, no comparison is pracpicture. The Commissioners have adopted ticable with any preceding period. a judicious classification by which the houses are distinguished under four classes, the last being that of the cabin or mud hut with one room, and the third class but one degree better. The following statement shows the proportion per cent. which the number of families in cach class of accommodation bear to the total number of families :

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The value of this classification is obvious, and if hereafter adopted in England it will render the statistics of house accommodation of considerably greater weight, in estimating the social condition and habits of the people. A mud hut upon a common ought not to rank even, in the array of figures, with the mansions of wealthy cities.

tion.

The population have been divided by the commissioners into three great classes, nearly equivalent to the three ordinary grades of society: and the proportions of families appear as follow:

The report of the Irish Census Commissioners abounds in highly interesting inquiries into the condition of the Irish people; but as they do not afford any comparison with the year 1831, the object which we had proposed cannot be carried any further with respect to that country.

This succinct view of the material progress of society, as far as it admits of elucidation by statistics, is certainly incomplete without a consideration of its advances or retrogression in religion, in morals, and in education; but these questions, far more important in themselves than any we have here discussed, are not so immediately connected with the results of the Census.

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.

[CIRCUITS.]
CERTIFICATE.

292.]

[BANKRUPT, P.

CERTIORA'RI, in law, is a writ issuing from one of the superior courts, diEven in Ireland it appears that manu-recting the judges or officers of an inferior factures are attracting the agricultural court to transmit or cause to be certified population; for the number of families (certiorari facias) records or other proengaged in trade and manufactures have ceedings. The object of the removal is increased five per cent. since 1831; and either that the judgment of the inferior the number employed in agriculture have jurisdiction may be reviewed by the sudiminished in a corresponding proporperior court, or that the decision and the proceedings leading to it may take place before the higher tribunal. An instance of the former is where the convictions of magistrates or the judgments or orders of courts of quarter-sessions are removed by certiorari into the court of King's Bench by way of appeal against their validity, in which case the decision which has previously been given is re-considered, and is confirmed or set aside. An instance of the latter is where an indictment found against a peer by an inferior jurisdiction is certified or transmitted into the Court of Parliament or the Court of the Lord High Steward, in order that the further proceedings and the adjudication may take place before the proper tribunal. By this writ, indictments, with the proceedings thereon, may, at any time before actual trial, be removed from the assizes or quarter-sessions into the Court of

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Vested means, Professions, &c.
The direction of labour
Their own manual labour
Means not specified.

Rural. Civic.

6.6

1.8
28.3
50.
68. 36.4
1.9 7.

The occupations of all individuals above 15 years of age are classified: Ist, as ministering to food; 2nd, as ministering to clothing; 3rd, as ministering to lodging, &c.; 4th, as ministering to health, education, &c.; and 5th, as unclassified or miscellaneous; each class bearing respectively the following proportions to the entire population, viz. 233; 11. 2; 17; and 6. But as no

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