686 FOURTH REPORT — 1834. 



to the last Government census. The letter was accompanied by a 

 book, in which the sexes and the particular parishes in which the 

 parents resided were to be inserted. He also reqiiested the 

 various Societies of Baptists, the Society of Friends, and Jews, 

 and others, who do not dispense the ordinance of baptism of 

 infants, to favour him with the above particulars relative to 

 children born to members of their societies, and at maturity. He 

 had the satisfaction of receiving returns from the whole ; as also 

 an account of the children of parents who, while disapproving 

 of infant baptism, did not belong to any religious societ)^; when 

 it appeared that in the city and suburbs there were 6397 children 

 baptized or born to Baptists, &c., and that of that number there 

 were only 3225 inserted in the parochial registers, leaving un- 

 registered 3172. 



Concerning Marriages. — Although in Scotland there is no 

 marriage act as in England, restricting the solemnization of 

 marriages to clergymen of the Established Church, this ordinance 

 can only be regularly celebrated by persons duly called to the 

 pastoral office, and not until a certificate of the proclamation of 

 banns has been produced. 



Persons irregularly married are deprived of the privileges of 

 the Church till they appear before the Session, acknowledge their 

 fault, and are reponed. From this circumstance, in connexion 

 with the solicitude of the female and her friends to have the mar- 

 riage registered, the marriage register of Glasgow and its suburbs 

 may be held as correct for all statistical purposes. 



Concerning Deaths. — The deaths are ascertained by the 

 number of burials. The burying-grounds in the city and 

 suburbs are placed under the management of fourteen wardens. 

 These officers, who attend every funeral, enter in a memorandum 

 book, at the grave, the name, age, and designation of the person 

 buried, along with the amount of fee received, and the name of 

 the undertaker. Having taken these and other particulars, the 

 wardens afterwards enter the whole in a book, classified con- 

 formably to a printed schedule drawn up by Dr. Cleland. At 

 the end of the year they furnish him with an abstract fi-om their 

 books ; and it is from a combination of these abstracts that he 

 ascertains the number of deaths at the various ages. The abs- 

 tract includes still-born children, and the deaths of Jews and 

 members of the Society of Friends, who have separate burying- 

 places. 



Concerning the Population of Glasgotu and its Suburbs. — 

 Having been appointed to take the sole charge of conducting 

 the enumeration and classifying the population of the city of 

 Glasgow and suburbs for the Government census of 1831, the 



