1824.} 
ter return. The ratio of the number of 
children, under ten years of age, will 
be seen to be less, in Scotland, than 
in either England or Wales; and the 
variations’ in the different counties 
constitute a feature of peculiar in- 
terest; the extremes in England being 
2,493 males in the metropolis, against 
3,147 in Lancashire; and 2,111 females 
in the metropolis, against 3,047 in Sus- 
sex. In Scotland the minimum of males 
was 2,523 in Perth, against 3,131 in 
Clackmannan ; and the minimum of fe- 
males, 2,091 in Nairn, against 2,847 in 
Argyl. 
A synopsis, in thirteen gradations, of 
the ages of the population of Great 
Britain, will serve more distinctly to 
mark the cause of the disproportion of 
baptisms and burials in the metropolis ; 
it will be seen that the immigration, from 
all the different parts of the country, 
occasions a great excess of population 
between the ages of twenty and sixty ; 
after which age the proportions decrease 
—a circumstance which will justify the 
inference of a shorter average duration 
of life in the metropolis than in other 
parts ofthe country: except Lancashire ; 
in which county the proportion, in 
10,000 of each sex, between sixty and 
seventy years of age, was only 344 
males and 351 females. The proportion 
of females in Scotland, from twenty to 
thirty, is somewhat remarkable. 
I have thus far endeavoured to point 
out the more prominent features of the 
several tabulated statements annexed, 
which, I hope, will obtain insertion in the 
ensuing number of your magazine, and 
that they will, so far, excite an interest, 
as to call forth successive observations, 
from some of your intelligent readers. 
A knowledge of the principle and 
power of increase in the human species, 
in relation to the principles, means, and 
power of supplying their necessities, 
their. wants, their comforts, and their 
enjoyments, physical and intellectual, 
may justly be regarded as the most en- 
viable of all human attainments; and it 
may be considered as much a matter of 
surprize, as of regret, that, during a 
period of 6,000 years, no commensu- 
rate mind should appear to have been 
applied to the subject. It would be an 
imputation, indeed, to common sense, 
to regard the wretched dogmas, of po- 
pulation increasing geometrically, and 
subsistence arithmetically, and the na« 
tural tendency of societies to press 
against the means of subsistence, which 
have been attempted to be foisted on 
Remarks on the Population of Great Britain. 
423 
the attention of the public within the 
last thirty years, as having the slightest 
claim to notice. ' 
It is obvious, as well.on reflection as 
from an appeal to history and all expe- 
rience, that, whatever privation commu- 
nities, in their local and circumscribed 
spheres, may have been exposed to, 
nature has never been deficient in the 
power to supply the means of relief; 
the privation, therefore, must have 
resulted from some perversion in the 
self-constituted relations of society. 
_It is not my intention, on this occa- 
sion, to trespass on your pages, by enter- 
ing into any detailed elucidation of the 
sad consequences resulting to society 
from the selfish and perverse conduct of 
the few, under whose controul the desti- 
nies of the many have, so unhappily, 
fallen. As far as the narrow circle 
of society in the united kingdom of 
Great Britain and Ireland is concerned 
in the question, the practice of enu- 
meration and account, which has been 
recently established and acted upon, 
may, if duly appreciated and stedfastly 
persevered in, lead to the most impor- 
tant advantages to mankind at large. 
The relative numbers, at the present 
time, compared with former periods, 
have been a subject of some discus- 
sion; it having been pertinaciously as- 
serted by some, that on an average of 
50 or 100 years, there is no increase; 
whilst others have believed in an increase, 
to an extent which, if not checked, will 
very soon lead to the necessity of eating 
one another. 
Had the authority of the numbers at 
different periods depended exclusively 
on the mere data of enumeration, it 
might be deemed less entitled to regard 
than it is, as supported by the collateral 
evidence of the registry of marriages, 
baptisms, and burials. These are con- 
firmatory of the increase, represented 
in p. 641 of Vol. LVI. of your magazine. 
The annual average numbers of regis- 
tered marriages and registered baptisms, 
to every 100 marriages in England and 
Wales, since 1754, have been as follows : 
Baptisms 
Marriages. to 100 
Marriages. 
Five years ending 1760 52,666 366 
Lh Amen ceaaer 1765 59,883 —_ 
Do. .......-..1770 59,043 361 
Do..... 1775 «60,741 —_ 
Do. ..........1780 64,238 356 
DDD. citelel atte -- 1785 66,722 366 
Do..........-1790 71,363 359 
Do. ..2e.606061795 72,205 353 
Do. ......-.+- 180) 74,998 340 
Five 
