134 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



struck their tents, and passed into another parish, in order to escape enu- 

 meration. 



The number of cities and towns of various magnitudes in Great Britain 

 was 815 : viz., 580 in England and Wales, 225 in Scotland, and 10 in the 

 Channel islands. The town and country population was equally balanced : 

 10^ millions against 10i millions. The density in the towns was 3,337 

 persons to the square mile ; in the country only 120. The average popu- 

 lation of each town in England and Wales was 15,500 ; of each town in 

 Scotland, 6,654. The average ground area of the English town was four 

 and three-fifths miles. 



In 1851, Great Britain contained 70 towns of 20,000 inhabitants and 

 upwards. There was an increasing tendency of the people to concentrate 

 themselves in, masses. London extended over an area of 78,029 acres, or 

 122 square miles, and the number of its inhabitants, rapidly increasing, 

 w-as 2,362,236 on the day of the last census. A conception of this vast 

 mass of people might be formed by the fact, that if the metropolis was 

 surrounded by a wall, having a north gate, a south gate, an east gate, and 

 a west gate, and each of the four gates was of sufficient width to allow a 

 column of persons to pass out freely four abreast, and a peremptory necessity 

 required the immediate evacuation of the city, it could not be accomplished 

 under four-and-twenty hours, by the expiration of which time the head 

 of each of the four columns would have advanced a no less distance than 

 seventy -jive miles from their respective gates, all the people being in close 

 file, four deep. 



The 624 districts of England and Wales classed in an order of density 

 ranged from IS persons to the sqxiare mile in Northumberland, to 185,751 

 in the East London district. In all London there were 19,375 persons to 

 the square mile. In 1801 the people of England were on an average 153 

 yards asunder, in 1851 only 108 yards. The mean distance between their 

 houses in 1801 was 362 yards, in 1851 only 252 yards. In London the 

 mean proximity in 1801 was 21 yards, in 1851 only 14 yards. The 

 number of islands in the British group was stated at 500, but inhabitants 

 were only found on 175 on the day of the census. 



The precautions taken by government to secure extreme accuracy were 

 very great ; they involved the final process of a minute examination and 

 totaling, at the Census Office, of 20,000,000 of entries, contained on 

 upwards of 1,250,000 pages of the enumerators' books. The latter were 

 upwards of 38,000 in number. 



In the collection of the census, the first step taken by the enumerators 

 was to deliver to every occupier of a house or tenement a householder's 

 schedule. Upon this schedule inquiry was made as to the name, relation 

 to head of family, condition, sex, age, occupation, and birthplace of 

 every person in Great Britain, and also as to how many of them were 

 blind, or deaf and dumb. For the use of the poorer native population of 

 Wales, a certain number of the forms was printed in the language of 

 that country. The total number of schedules forwarded from the census 



