POPULATION. 189 



sider, both in a moral and political point of view, to be a deplorable 

 result. 



The accumulation of females in towns may be explained by 

 the following considerations. Females are much more customarily 

 employed as household servants than males, because, generally 

 speaking, they are satisfied with less wages, and in-door occupa- 

 tions being more in accordance with the habits of their sex, they 

 not only prefer that service, but are more at home, as it were, in 

 the performance of its duties. There is, in addition to these, a 

 very large proportion of needle and washerwomen, hucksters, 

 cigar-makers, and petty traffickers, who more than compensate for 

 the number of tailors, shoemakers, and other artisans of the male 

 sex ; however, it cannot be denied that many of the female sex 

 resort to towns for the purpose of either public or private prosti- 

 tution. 



The larger proportion of males in the districts, on the other 

 hand, evidently results from the disproportion of sexes among the 

 imported immigrants. Out of a total of 12,912 immigrant adults 

 introduced since the year 1845, 10,099 are males, with an 

 accompaniment of only 2,813 females. 



By reference to Captain Tulloch's " Statistical Report," and 

 the Returns published for the six years ending December, 1853, 

 it would appear that the ratio of mortality has increased : for, 

 before emancipation, and among the slaves, be it remarked, it was 

 1 per 33, whereas it is nowl per 30-20, for the whole population. 

 This is a fact, which calls for the attentive consideration of the 

 philosopher and the philanthropist, since it tends to prove that, 

 even under the incubus of slavery, the mortality was less than 

 under the regimen of freedom. The same result has been 

 observed in the United States. But the condition of the 

 emancipated in the British colonies is certainly very different 

 from, and far superior to, the position of the free people of colour 

 in the States ; yet, it is to be presumed, that identical effects are 

 the results of similar causes. These causes are : the improvidence 

 and neglect of the emancipated ; the misery which has been on 

 the increase, since the year 1846 especially ; the consequent want 

 of the comforts often, in fact, of the necessaries of life and the 

 utter deficiency of medical aid. 



During the period of slavery, the slaves were not only provided 



