778 



REGISTRATION. 



jectioris to the law in some details, it is n great 

 mutter to have obtained the principle in so clear 

 and hroad a manner. Certain rules there must be, 

 it the state is to be expected to protect both itself 

 and individuals, and to secure to them, without 

 trenching either on scruples of conscience or of 

 feeling, all the solid advantages of a well-defined 

 marriage law. While, therefore, the Dissenter 

 has been relieved in a way which leaves him but 

 little to complain of in this particular affair, the 

 Churchman has nothing whatever on which to 

 ground an objection against it. For he may be 

 married in the old way, by licence or by banns, as 

 if the law had never been altered. 



Important and obvious as are the applications 

 of the registered facts, the measure had to encoun- 

 ter considerable opposition. Its advantages were 

 scarcely perceived at first by the multitude ; and 

 some of the clergy of the Established Church 

 threw obstacles in its way, under an erroneous 

 apprehension that the registration of births might 

 interfere with the administration of baptisms. By 

 taking active steps to make known in every way 

 the nature, advantages, and obligations of the Act, 

 and by a firm, but conciliatory conduct, the Regis- 

 trar-General succeeded beyond the most sanguine 

 expectations, in obtaining, during the first year of 

 its operation, an almost complete register of deaths 

 and marriages. The register of births is less com- 

 plete ; but this owing to the want of a clause in 

 the act to render the information of births impera- 

 tive. The country is divided into 618 districts, 

 over each of which is appointed a Superintendent- 

 Registrar, and which are generally coincident with 

 the poor law unions. In the latter end of 1838 

 there were 2,193 Registrars employed. Certified 

 copies are transmitted to the General Register 

 Office quarterly : they are collected by the Super- 

 intendent-Registrars from more than 14,000 persons 

 charged with the duty of compiling them. More 

 than 80,000 separate papers, containing 847,149 

 entries, have been thus transmitted, of which 

 739,737, (being all the entries of births and deaths, 

 and such marriages as are registered by the Regis- 

 trar of Marriages) have been compared with the 

 original by the Superintendent-Registrar, and cer- 

 tified to be correct. The certified copies are ex- 

 amined, arranged, and indexed at the General 

 Register Office, and there the abstracts are made 

 which are contained in the Annual Report. 



In the year ending June 30th, 1838, it appears 

 that 111,481 marriages were registered; 107,201 

 according to the rites of the Established Church, 

 namely, 9 by special license, 13,677 by license, 

 68,410 by bans, and 493 by a certificate from a 

 Superintendent-Registrar; while in 24, 612 instances 

 it was not stated in which of the foregoing forms 

 the maniage was performed: 4,280 marriages took 

 place not according to the rites of the Established 

 Church, namely, 2,976 in registered places of wor- 

 ship, 1,093 in the offices of Superintendent-Regis- 

 trars, 76 between Quakers, and 135 between Jews. 

 In the first quarter 24.030 marriages were regis- 

 tered, in the second 34,449, in the third 23,201, 

 in the fourth 29,801. The mean of the three last 

 quarters was 29,150; and this would make the 

 annual number 1 16,600, while, according to for- 

 mer estimates, the number should have been 

 116,000. 



399J.12 births were registered 204,863 of 

 males, 194,849 of females. The numbers regis- 

 tered in the tirst quarter amounted to 74,588, in 



the second to 89,528, in the thiid to 113,815, in 

 the fourth 121,781. The registration of birtlis 

 " has, since the commencement, made a considera- 

 ble and progressive advance; and during the fourth 

 quarter of the first year attained a superiority in 

 point of numbers over the average registration of 

 baptisms," which, it is estimated by the Registrar- 

 General, would have amounted to 111,147 quar- 

 terly in 1837-8. It is, on every account, greatly 

 to be desired that the registration of births should 

 be rendered complete; but this appears scarcely 

 attainable, unless the Act of Registration shall be 

 made compulsory. 



The deaths registered in the year amounted to 

 335,956, to which must be added 2,704 deaths 

 which occurred in the first year, and were regis- 

 tered in the first quarter of the second. This 

 would make 338,660 deaths in the year, while 

 according to former proportions, the probable 

 number of burials entered in the parochial registers 

 during the same period would be 291,715. Mr 

 Finlayson, in a communication addressed to the 

 Registrar-General, estimated the total deaths at 

 home, in the year ending June 30th, 1838, at 

 335,968. 



The following is an abstract of two tables, 

 shewing the number of registered deaths of males 

 and females at each age, and the relative propor- 

 tion out of a thousand deaths dying in each 

 period. 



Similar tables are given for each of 25 divisions 

 of the country, which have been made with refer- 

 ence, as far as possible, to the natural character of 

 the several districts, and the employments of the 

 population. 



* Excluding still-born children, who are not required tr> be registered. 



From a very able report )>y Mr Farr upon the 

 causes of death, it appears that, in the half year 

 ending 31st December, 1837, the causes of death 

 were assigned in 141,607 instances. The total 

 deaths of males and females from each cause aro 

 given for England and Wales, and for each of '25 

 divisions of the country, and the annual mortality 

 by each of 91 causes of death has been deduced 

 from the facts registered. The proportion of 

 deaths in 100,000 caused by each class of diseases 

 in each division has also been calculated. 



The following is an abstract of this information, 

 the diseases being grouped together in a few classes 

 according to their character: 



