TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 



95 



In certain other towns, some of which lie contiguous to those contained in the last 

 list, the average increase has not exceeded 2100 per cent., as the following table will 

 show- 



As an instance of the increase of the value of land in the vicinity of large towns, 

 Mr. Ashworth cited the township of Chorlton-upon-Medlock (adjoining Manchester). 

 The assessed value of the township was in 1815 19,484/., in 1829 66,645/., and in 

 1841 137,651/.; the increase between 1692 and 1841 is shown in the second table. 



To show the advantages arising from a locality becoming the seat of manufactures, 

 the case of West Houghton and Staley Bridge was cited. In 1812 one of the first 

 power-loom factories in England was established in the township of West Houghton, 

 near Bolton, and in the same year destroyed by rioters. That species of manufac- 

 ture being thus driven from that district, was established at Ashton and Staley Bridge. 

 The assessed value of the parish of Ashton-under-Lyne was in 1815 33,548/., in 1841 

 143,803/. At West Houghton the value of that township was in 1815 73771-, in 

 1829 9564/., in 1841 10,978/. That township was now the poorest of the twenty- 

 four comprised in the Bolton Union. 



The Forest of Rossendale, containing an area of about twenty-four square miles, 

 in the early part of the sixteenth century contained 80 souls, it was now increased 

 to upwards of 21,000, and land used exclusively for farming purposes had been re- 

 cently let for upwards often times the rental it fetched a century ago. 



With respect to the population of Lancashire, in 1801 this was 672,564, in 1841 it 

 was 1,667,064. 



On the Criminal Statistics of Lancashire. By Mr. Hopkins. 



Mr. Hopkins stated, that since the year 1782 the number of persons executed in 

 Lancashire was 260 ; of that number ten were females. The greatest number of exe- 

 cutions took place in the years 1801 and 1816, when they amounted to twenty. 

 There were no executions in 1783, 1793, 1823, 1837, and the three last years. In 

 April 1838 one person had been executed at Kirkdale, and this was the only execu- 

 tion which had taken place in Lancashire within the last six years. 

 The crimes for which the parties had been condemned were, for 



Uttering forged notes 54 



Forgery ,. 13 



Murder 33 



Burglary 48 



Robbery .- 53 



Horse- stealing 9 



Malicious shooting 2 



Returning from transportation 2 



Seducing a soldier 1 



Various offences * 45 



260 



