Comparative Account : Population of Great Britain. 217 



the census more perfect and more complete. The analysis of the various 

 divisions of labour and the classification of the computers, under the 

 able management of M. Prony, forms one of the most interesting 

 and instructive features of the great French logarithmic tables. But 

 we must hasten to the consideration of other subjects. 



The four successive Acts of Parliament relating to the important 

 subject of the census of the people have been in some respects similar, 

 whilst in others they have been subjected to considerable modifica- 

 tions. In the number of houses and persons, for example, they remain 

 the same; but the Acts of 1811 and 1821 differed from that of 1801 

 in demanding the occupation o? families instead of persons, and which 

 led to the useful result that about one third of the population of Great 

 Britain are employed in agriculture ; rather less than one half in 

 trade, manufacture and commerce, leaving to the third or miscella- 

 neous class one fifth of the aggregate population. In the Act for 1831 

 another great improvement was made — by finding the number of 

 males who have arrived at twenty years of age, their occupations 

 being then usually settled for life ; and it would appear that this altera- 

 tion has been forced upon Mr. Rickman's attention by the remarkable 

 statistical fact, that the particular age of twenty furnishes to a certain 

 extent a ready test to the magistrates, — before whom the returns are 

 authenticated, — of the accuracy of the enumerator, one half of the ex- 

 isting male population being thus included in the inquiry. On a great 

 scale this approach to equality holds good to a remarkable extent, the 

 males under twenty years of age being 3,072,392, and above that 

 age 3,002,200. 



The important question of the ages of persons, which succeeded 

 beyond expectation in 1821, was not repeated in 1831, princi- 

 pally on account of its imposing too much labour in combination with 

 the inquiries which the latter act embraced, relative to the various 

 trades and occupations of the community. There must be a limit, it 

 is manifest, to the objects of every Act. We cannot embrace every- 

 thing, and if we attempt too much, the machinery will most assuredly 

 break down. Legislation must be practical in all its objects. Every 

 step made must be on sure grounds, and we must leave as little as 

 possible to uncertainty and chance. If therefore in this census we 

 embrace one object, in the next another may be substituted for it, and 

 in some succeeding one the original clause may b^ restored. The 

 objects of a census may thus be, like the terms of a recurring series, 

 appearing and disappearing at periodical intervals, so that in a long 

 lapse of time all the terms in their utmost fulnes.s may be made to 

 appear. 



The inquiry relating to the trades and occupations of the people of 

 England, (so diversified is human industry here,) cannot but lead to 

 important results. A minute analysis of social life must open new 

 and satisfactory views of the great and mysterious frame-work of so- 

 ciety. Continued for a long course of time, it must disclose to the 

 keen inquirer into the sources and influence of national wealth, a 

 perfect view of social and moral organization. There is a relation of 

 Bome kind, of a fixed and immutable nature, among the various grades 

 of society, and there must be laws which govern the numerical amount 



Third Series, Vol. 1. No. 3. Sept. 1832. 2 F 



