It does not appear that the census was held with strict regularity. It was sometimes altogether omitted. (Cic. Pro Arch. 5. 11.) The usual interval was five years; and in allusion to the sacrifice of purification, the interval was commonly called a lustre (lustrum).

When a person was duly entered on the books of the censors, this was taken as a proof of his citizenship, even if he were a slave, provided he had been registered with his master's consent. (Cicero, De Or. i. 40; Ulpian, Frag. tit. i. 8; Gaius, i. 17.) As the census was held at Rome, citizens who were in the provinces, and wished to be registered, were obliged to repair there on that occasion (Cicero, Ad Att. i. 18, &c.); but this was sometimes evaded, and was made a matter of complaint by the censors. The census, accompanied with the ceremony of the lustrum, seems to have fallen into disuse after the time of Vespasian; but the numbering of the population, and the registration of property, continued under the empire.

The term census is also used in Latin authors to signify the amount of a person's estate, and hence we read of census equestris, the estate of an eques, and census senatorius, the estate of a senator.

The nature of the Roman census may be collected from various particulars. One object was to ascertain the number of men capable of bearing arms; and another, to ascertain the amount of each person's property, and the various heads of which it consisted. Cicero's treatise on Laws, though it contains a picture of an ideal republic, appears in one passage (iii. 3, 4) to describe what the Roman census was as it existed in his time. He says "Let the censors take a census of the ages of the people, the children, the slaves, the property; let them look after the temples of the city, the roads, waters, treasury, the taxes; let them distribute into tribes the parts of which the people consist; then let them distribute the population according to property, ages, classes; let them register the children of the cavalry and the infantry; let them forbid celibacy; let them regulate the morals of the people; let them leave no infamous man in the serate; let there be

two censors; let them hold their office for five years, and let the censorial authority be always continued. Let the censors faithfully guard the law; and let private persons bring to them their acta" (probably their vouchers or evidences). Thus the Romans must have had an immense mass of statistical documents, collected every five years, from which the population and the wealth of the community at each quinquennial period could be accurately known. Florus (i. 6) observes, "that by the great wisdom of King Servius the state was so ordered that all the differences of property, rank, age, occupations, and professions were registered, and thus a large state was administered with the same exactness as the smallest family." The Roman law fixed the age of legal capacity, and the ages at which a man could enjoy the various offices of the state. There must consequently have been a register of births under the republic; and a constitution of the emperor Marcus Antoninus, as to the registration of births for a special purpose, is recorded. (Jul. Capitolinus, M. Antonin. c. 9.)

In addition to this we have from the Codes of Theodosius and Justinian various particulars as to the census under the empire, and particularly from a valuable fragment of Ulpian, entitled 'De Censibus.' (Dig. 50, tit. 15, s. 2, 3, 4.) These authorities have preserved even the form of the registration under the Roman census. These registers showed the number, class, age, and property of all free persons, and also indicated the heads of families, mothers, sons, and daughters; they also comprised the slaves, male and female, with their occupations and the produce of their labour. They also contained all the lands, and indicated the mode in which they were cultivated; whether as vineyards, olive-yards, cornland, pastures, forest, and so forth. They showed the number of acres (jugera), of vines, olives, and other trees. In fact, the Roman census under the empire was a complete register of the population and wealth of all the countries included within the limits of the Cæsar's dominions. These remarks are from Dureau de la Malle, Economie Politique des Romains,' who has given at the end of

one of his volumes the form of the registration tables.

CENSUS. Before the first enumeration of the people of this country, in 1801, the number of the population was a fruitful topic with party writers. By some it was contended that England was far less populous than it had been formerly. Arthur Young, writing in 1769, states (vol. iv. p. 556, Northern Tour') that these writers asserted we had lost a million and a half of people since the Revolution. Even so intelligent a writer as Dr. Price was of opinion that in 1780 England and Wales contained no more than 4,763,000 souls. The increase of manufactures, and the greater abundance of employment, which had of course the effect of raising wages, might also be regarded from another, though a one-sided point of view, as the result of the decline of population. It was in vain to tell such persons that all the circumstances of the country were favourable to the increase of population; and that while agri- | culture was improving, manufactures and commerce rapidly extending, wages higher, and provisions continued at a reasonable price, it was not in the nature of things that population should even continue stationary, but that it would be most likely to increase with great rapidity. It is now known that the population of England increased upwards of two millions and a quarter between 1750 and the end of the century; but it was not until a census was actually taken that an end was put to the disputes as to the amount of the population.

Having once obtained an enumeration of the people, it has been possible to apply the facts to antecedent periods, in order to form an approximative estimate of the amount of population. This task was undertaken by the late Mr. Rickman, who, in 1836, addressed a circular letter to the clergy throughout England and Wales, asking for their assistance in preparing returns from the parish registers of the births, marriages, and deaths at different periods. Out of about ten thousand parishes in England, one-half possess registers which were commenced prior to 1600, and of these, three-fourths commence as early as the year 1570. From

1750 6,066,041 450,994

1. Census of 1801.-The first census of Great Britain was limited to the following objects: 1, The number of individual inhabitants in each parish, distinguishing males from females; 2, The number of inhabited houses, and the number of families inhabiting the same in each parish; 3, The number of uninhabited houses; 4, A classification of the employment of individuals into the great divisions of agriculture, trade, manufactures and handicraft, and a specification of the numbers not included in either of those divisions; 5, The number of persons serving in the regular army, the militia, and the embodied local militia. The inquiry under the fourth head entirely failed, through "the impossibility," as Mr. Rickman states, "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. (Statement of Progress under Pop. Act of 1830.) The results of the census were, however, very valuable in putting an end to doubts and controversy on the subject of the numbers of the people.

2. Census of 1811.-The second census embraced all the points which were the subject of inquiry in 1801; but the question respecting the number of houses was subdivided, so as to distinguish the number of houses building, which, in the

first census, were classed under the head of uninhabited houses. With a view also of obtaining a more accurate return of the occupations of the people, the form of inquiry under this head was modified so as to ascertain, 1st, What number of families (not persons, as in 1801) were chiefly employed in or maintained by agriculture; 2nd, How many by trade, manufactures, and handicraft; and, 3rd, The number of families not comprised in either class.

3. Census of 1821.-The heads of inquiry were the same as in 1811, with an additional head respecting the ages of the population. For the first time it was attempted to ascertain the age of every person, distinguishing males from females. The first head included persons under the age of five; and the quinquennial period was adopted for all persons not exceeding 20, after which the ages were classified in decennial periods; and there was a head which comprised all persons aged 100 and upwards. The ages of 92 out of every 100 persons were thus ascertained.

4. Census of 1831.-The new features in this census were an alteration in the form of inquiry respecting occupations. In 1801 the attempt to ascertain the occupation of every individual was, as already stated, a failure; and the inquiry in 1811 and 1821 had reference only to the heads of families; but this form was altered, in consequence, as Mr. Rickman states, of "the often recurring and unanswerable doubt as to what is to be deemed a family." The returns to the questions, as modified under the census of 1831, showed, as in 1811 and 1821, the number of families employed in, 1, Agriculture; 2, In trade, manufacture, and handicrafts; and 3, The number of families not comprised in either class; but they also showed, in addition to the information procured at any former period, the number of persons (males aged twenty years and upwards) employed in, 1, Manufacture or in making manufacturing machinery; 2, Retail trade or handicraft, as masters or workmen; 3, The number of capitalists, bankers, and other educated men; 4, Labourers employed in nonagricultural labour; 5, Other males aged

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twenty years and upwards (not including servants); 6, Male servants aged twenty and upwards; and also male servants under twenty. The number of female servants was also returned under a separate head. The returns also showed, in reference to the occupation and cultivation of the land, the number of-1, Occupiers employing labourers; 2, Occupiers not employing labourers; 3, Labourers. The inquiry respecting age, which had on the whole been so successful in 1821, was abandoned, except in so far as it went to ascertain the number of males aged twenty years and upwards, on the ground that it imposed "too much labour in combination with the other inquiries," and that, for so short an interval as ten years, the information was "unnecessary and inconclusive." With regard to males aged twenty and upwards employed in trade, manufactures, and handicrafts, an attempt was made to show the number employed in different branches of these employments. The following was the plan adopted for this purpose:-A form, containing a list of one hundred different trades and handicrafts, comprising those most commonly carried on, was furnished to the overseers in each parish or place required to make a separate return, to be filled up with the number of males aged twenty and upwards; and the overseers were authorized to add to the list such additional trades as were not included in the printed form. The absence of uniformity in describing occupations not inserted in the official formula, and the difficulty of testing the accuracy of that part of the classification which was left to the discretion of the overseers, were the principal defects of this plan. The number of distinct occupations returned in the census was 598.

The censuses of 1801, 1811, 1821, and 1831 were each superintended by the late Mr. Rickman, clerk assistant of the House of Commons, and the business of enumeration was conducted by the overseers of the poor in England and Wales, and by the parochial schoolmasters in Scotland.

Census of 1841.-This is far more complete and comprehensive than any preceding census. The heads of inquiry