1-824.] 



of the Population of Great Britain. 



*' Memoir of Central India," recently 

 published, that, on his being appointed 

 to the command of that district in 

 1818, he caused a census to lie taken 

 of the dominions of Holkar, Scindia, 

 and tlie Puars ; and that the utility of 

 the information was so obvious to 

 Tantca Jogli, the prime minister of 

 Holkar, as to induce him to declare, 

 that it had imparted to him a know- 

 ledjje which he could only describe by 

 saying, that he felt like a man who 

 had been couclied for a cataract in his 

 eye, "it was liu-ht after darkness." 

 The additional illustration, however, 

 which I send you on the present cicea- 

 sion, requires no far-fetched apology 

 to ^ive it a claim to the attention of 

 your intelligent and numerous readers. 

 It will prove its own best recommen- 

 dation, and as interesting for the 

 numerical res.;lts wliich it exhibits, 

 as for the more perfecting of future 

 censuses, wliich it is calculated to 

 Occasion. For tlie idea, or, at all 

 events, for the first prouiuIgati(m of the 

 illustration, tiie jjublic are indebted to 

 George Harvey, esq. m.g.s. m.a.s. &c. 

 inserted in the last Number (xxxii.) 

 of the " Quarterly Journal of Science, 

 &c." and I should have contented 

 mjsolf by expressing the pleasure and 

 gratification I had derived from it, and 

 T)y simply referring your readers to 

 that work for an examination of the de- 

 tails, had not the learned and ingenious 

 gentleman's remarks upon it induced 

 Die to conclude. Ihat his own calcula- 

 tions had led him to draw somewhat 

 erroneous inferences from tlicm. 



Mr. Harvey apjiears to consider 

 tliat his numerical results demonstrate 

 the change that lias taken place in the 

 oecupalion of tlie jjcoplc in the dilfe- 

 rcnt counties, whilst the infeience 

 which I have been led to draw, after a 

 v(My minute attention to the details in 

 all their bearings^ is, that they demon- 

 strati! (if I may use the term, for it is 

 something like proving a negative,) 

 great' im|ierfeclion in the relnvns. I 

 have transposed Mr. Harvey's illus- 

 trafion from the orilcr of increment 

 and di'crcment of the several coniilies, 

 in Mhich Ik; has arranged them, for the 

 erdcr of aljihabetical arrang(;ment of 

 the <H)unties ; and I trust that the 

 learned gentleman will see that it is 

 the simplest, and consequently the 

 most intelligible, form; and, by the 

 explanations whi(Ji 1 deem it neces- 

 «;<iy to ofler, to render the subject 

 Jnlulligiblu to tiie j^entsral leailer, 1 



39 



think it will be seen that the fairer 

 inference is, that the results bespeak 

 an imperfection in the returns, rather 

 than the change which has actually 

 taken place in the occnpatioiis of the 

 people. I concur entirely witii the 

 learned gentleman in his expression, 

 that "the numerical changes, which 

 particular branches of the community 

 undergo in the progress of time, are to 

 be classed among the most remarkable 

 phenomena with which we are sur- 

 rounded ;" and, as such, I deem it the 

 more im|)ortant and desirable, that the 

 returns should be obtained in a manner 

 and degree the most unequivocally 

 correct and perfect 



In the Tables C, D, E, which I .send 

 you for insertion in your half-yearly 

 Supplement, the total number of fami- 

 lies in each county of England, mid 

 their occupations, in 1821, will Jje 

 found; and the second column of tlie 

 following Statement exhibits the in- 

 crease in each county on the nundijr 

 of families, as returned in 1811 : and 

 now, taking the county of Bedford as 

 an example whereby to explain the 

 nature of the calculations, which aie 

 founded not on the actual number of 

 families in each county, but on a ct>m- 

 mon radix of 10,000; and, instead of 

 the characttrs + — , for phcs ami 

 viinus, apprehensive that the width of 

 your pages might not admit type of tliat 

 description, 1 have used the initials p 

 and 111 ; thus Bedford has 123 familiiS 

 VI, minus or less, employed in agrieul- 

 lurc ; 5 families ni, jnm?«, employed 

 in trade, &c. ; and 133 families p, plug 

 or more, unproductive, not included in 

 either of the other two classes, that is, 

 in the projiortion of 10,000 families, 

 as returned in 1811; but, admitting 

 the returns at both periods and the 

 calculation founded Ujiou them lo be 

 correct, it does not IblJow that f.ie 

 agricultural population in 1821 is minus 

 or less in the aggregate than it was iu 

 1811; as will be manifest on ar<'fcrcnpe 

 to the general results of England and 

 Wales ; England, it will be seen, repre- 

 sents H)8, and W;iles 503. families 

 minus in agiicidturc, that is in i)roi)(ir- 

 ti(m to 10,000 families, whilst ihere is 

 an increase since 1811 of77,7.'J8 fami- 

 lies in the aggregate employed in 

 agriculture j which <',ircumstiince leads 

 me to suggest what 1 think will prove 

 a still more interesting order of illus- 

 tration, viz, to shovv the increase iit 

 ra(;li class of orreupation, or of lli<' three 

 divisions in whiiii the pupuhilion is 

 exhibited 



