222 
stated, at page 292 in your last number, 
it will be seen, that the greatest ratio of 
baptisms has been in those counties, 
in which the ratio of the parochial assess- 
ments has also been the greatest; con- 
firming, as far as the facts and experience 
go, that pauperism and poverty ge- 
nerate the seeds of their own increase, 
The counties of Kent, Essex, Norfolk, 
Suffolk, Sussex, Lincoln, and Cam- 
bridge, will in this respect, be found 
deserving of especial attention: the two 
latter have been generally considered, 
indubitably, unhealthy; but as far as 
mortality is concerned, the impression 
will be seen to be erroneous. Nor does 
the mortality appear to increase in any 
of the counties, whieh exhibit an excess 
of baptisms, in a ratio corresponding 
with that excess. The counties of 
Stafford, Warwick, Chester, Durham 
and Worcester will be found amongst 
those most deserving attention, with re- 
ference to the ratio of mortality ;—ex- 
cept Middlesex and Lancaster, which 
require to be specially considered. 
In all the counties previously enume- 
rated as exhibiting an excess of bap- 
tisms, the ratio of marriages will be 
seen to be less than in other counties ; 
whereby it is fair to infer, that the excess 
of baptisms is the fruit ofa reckless sen- 
suality inseparable from misery. 
The second statement exhibits the 
number of marriages, baptisms, and bu- 
rials in all England and Wales, in each 
of the first twenty years of the present 
century. To draw any just conclusions 
from this statement, it will be necessary 
to take into consideration the various 
special circumstances which occurred 
during the period ; transition from war 
to peace, extreme fluctuation in the 
demand for labour, and still greater 
fluctuation in the remuneration for la- 
bour, both by diminished rate of wages 
and extreme high money prices for all 
articles of subsistence, The statement 
at page 642 of your fifty-sixth volume 
will suffice to denote* the extreme fluc- 
* We are rather surprised that so able a 
statist as our correspondent, “ N. H.” 
should not have preferred the statement of 
his data of calculation by reference to the 
real or labour price, rather than to the sym- 
bolical or money price of the necessaries of 
life. The former, is assuredly, the only way 
of comiug directly and intelligibly to the 
point. All persons know what is meant 
by a pound of beef and a pound of bread ; 
but there goes more reasoning and more 
historical research to understand the mean- 
ing of a guinea or a shilling, as applicable to 
any afgument onthe progress, retrogression, 
Remarks on the Population of Great Britain. 
(Dec. 1, 
tuation in the money price of subsist- 
ence. The year 1799 was the com- 
mencement of the second eventful 
period which spread universal misery 
through the land, and caused a hundred 
thousand persons, in the three years 
1801-2-3, to’ perish for lack of food ; 
whilst the baptisms in 1802-3-4, may be 
regarded as a further confirmation (if 
further confirmation be wanting) of the 
position previously laid down ; viz. that 
pauperism and poverty generate the 
seed of their own accellerated increase. 
The peace of 1802-3 will be seen to 
have been remarkable for the increased 
number of marriages which followed: 
The years 1800 and 1801, however, were 
remarkable for the paucity of mar- 
tiages; the number in 1800 having 
been only 69,851, whilst the annual 
average of the five years, 1795-1800; 
was 74,898. The merciless avarice of 
the purveyors of food, in conjunction 
with the artificial money means by 
which it was sustained, in the years 
1800 and J801, having paralyzed all the 
social affections of the great body of the 
people, in these two years, 
An increase of marriages will in like 
manner be seen to have followed the 
peace of 1814-15, though not in an equal 
ratio to the increase which followed 
that of 1802-3. The misery resulting 
from the system of commercial pro- 
scription which prevailed in 1806-8, will 
be seen to have sent 20,000 persons 
annually to an untimely grave; and . 
the extreme high money price of sub- 
sistence in 1812-13 will, in like manner, 
also be seen to have added a similar 
number to the lists of mortality. 
The note which follows this state- 
ment, partially explains the cause of the 
disproportion of marriages, baptisins 
and burials, to the total population of 
the metropolis and Lancashire. I have 
no_ data of registry relating to Scotland, 
to enable me to offer you a similar illus- 
tration of the increase and decrease 
of the population in that section of the 
country ; a circumstance which I regret, 
inasmuch as a higher intellectual and 
moral character is supposed to prevail 
amongst the people at large in Scotland, 
than amongst those of England. The 
third statement, in some degree, sup- 
plies the deficiency of the parish regis- 
ter 
or condition of mankind, than comes within 
the apprehension of one in ten thousand 
of those, in whose ears the words may be 
sounded, or by whose moutlis they may 
be uttered. —Epir. 
