FOU THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 143 



several errors in the report made from these retuns to the Statistical 

 Society of London ; particularly in the relative numbers of persons 

 educated by churchmen and dissenters. The results of the labours 

 of the statistical committee in Manchester had shewn that forty-six 

 per cent, were educated by dissenters, and only twenty-two per cent, 

 by the church ; and that the centesimal proportions of the Sunday 

 schools gave, in every hundred scholars, sixty educated by dissenters, 

 thirty by churchmen, and ten by Roman catholics. He referred to 

 Rickman's tables of illegitimate children as another example of the 

 defective state of our registers. 



Dr. Lardner then rose to address the section on some statistical 

 results arising from the establishment of railway communications. 

 The subject to which he would call attention was one which, at 

 the present time, was particularly interesting ; but it was not for 

 the purpose of shewing how far railway speculations, as such, might 

 become profitable, that he should bring them forward — he had a 

 higher object, which was that of endeavouring to ascertain and, if 

 possible, to establish the general law which governed the increase of 

 inter-communication which they led to. He was not prepared to lay 

 before them any particular results as to the general effects of rail- 

 ways ; he should confine himself to a few facts which seemed to 

 shadow forth the probability of a statistical law in reference to the 

 point to which he had alluded. When the Liverpool and Manches- 

 ter railroad was projected, it was designed for the transit of goods 

 only, at the rate of ten miles per hour ; but it was unexpectedly 

 found that treble speed was attainable, and then passengers became 

 the primary consideration. Previous to the establishment of the 

 railway, there were twenty-six coaches between Liverpool and 

 Manchester, and the number of passengers making one trip was 

 about four hundred per day. Immediately on the establishment of 

 the railway, that number rose to twelve hundred ; thus, in the 

 very outset, an increase took place in the proportion of three to one. 

 The railway had been in operation, he believed, since 1829, and 

 from that period the number of passengers had gone on increasing, 

 with the exception of the period of the cholera, which might fairly 

 be omitted in his calculations, and now the number was fifteen 

 hundred per day, being a further increase of one in four ; and thus 

 it appears that no less than half a million travel by it annually. 

 Now the population of Liverpool was 165,000, and that of Man- 

 chester 183,000, making a total of 348,000 ; and thus they would 

 see that, out of those populations, an intercourse of more than half 

 a million took place annually. The time by the fastest coaches was 

 three hours ; the time on the first opening of the railway was, by 

 the fastest trains, one hour and a half : now it was but an hour and 

 twenty minutes. The fare of the coaches was, outside, half-a-gui- 

 nea — what it was inside he could not then recollect : by the railway 

 the average fare was four shillings and sixpence. In this instance, 

 diminution of time and expense both combined to increase the num- 

 ber of passengers ; and the increase, it should be borne in mind, 



