Leading Articles in thi: Reviews. 



541 



RECENT CENSUS RETURNS. 



Mr. C. J. R. HowARTH writes on some recent census 

 returns in the Geographical journal, which are illus- 

 trated by luminous diagrams. France, with a popula- 

 tion of 39.601,509, shows an increase of population in 

 twenty-three departments, and a decrease in sixty- 

 lour. As to the urban population, out of eighty towns 

 with populations exceeding 30,000, only six returned 

 a decrease, and the net increase in those towns was 

 475,442, while the total increase for the country was 

 only 449,264. 



Prussia reports the highest absolute increase, but 

 the percentage of increase is slightly diminished. The 

 continued increase is the result less of an enhanced 

 birth-rate than of decrease in the death-rate and 

 emigration coupled with increased immigration. No 

 province returns a decrease : — 



I.eaving out of account for the moment the Studtinis of 

 Berlin, wc find that East Prussia, with a total of 2,064,175, 

 returns an increase of only I '65 percent., and Ponierania 

 (1,716,921) one of I -91, and that (Saxony), West Prussia, 

 I'osen, and .Silesia return the next smallest proportional 

 accretions. It is pointed out in the notes accompanying the 

 figures that this is the more noteworthy, as in tjie east the 

 [irolific Slav clement is strong. 



The principal increase in uriian population has 

 occurred in the environment of Berlin, and in the 

 Khine-W cstphalian industrial region. 



Switzerland shows the heaviest proportional increase 

 in cantons containing large towns. " It is worthy of 

 notice that only six cantons out of twentv-fi\e contain 

 more than three towns with a population of more than 

 5,000, and that Uri, Obwalden, and Nidwalden i ontain 

 no such town." Females (1,911467) outnumber males 

 (1,853,535). Persons of other than the recognised con- 

 fessions, or of no confession of faith, have increased 

 in ten years from 7,358 to 46,597. 



Austria shows the heaviest increase in Kiistcnland 

 and in Lower Austria. The movement towards larger 

 towns from the rural districts, which seems a feature 

 of Kuroptan 1 ivilisation, is shown also in (lalicia. 



Norway shows also a greater increase of urban than 

 of rural population, though the rural population is 

 nearly three times as numerous as the urban. 



The Canailian census shows a decrease since 1901 in 

 Prince Kdward Island, in the north-west territories, 

 and in \ukon, hut an increase in all the other pro- 

 vinces, amounting over the Dominion to 34' 13 per 

 cent. Out of eighty-four districts in Ontario, no less 

 than forty-four return a population that has decreased 

 since 1901. 



India, in consequence of a decade not marked by any 

 very .serious failure of' the rains and by famines, shows 

 .1 total increase of 7 • i per cent. The central province 

 States, which returned a decroa.se in the previous decade 

 of 48 per cent,, now return an increase of no less ilian 

 29 -H per rent. 



rhin,i has had an ofTicinl enumeration of households, 

 but only parti. d enumeration by heads. The total 

 population of China is estimated at 319,617,750. 



MUST WE ALWAYS MUDDLE? 



A FEW months ago the I5riti.sh public was assured 

 that it would reap a full harvest of safety from the 

 fate of the Titanic ; now it would appear that futilit\ 

 will mark the epitaph so laboriously inscribed hy that 

 legal orgy known as " The Titanic Inquiry." Little 

 good can be derived from a reading of the report of 

 the protracted proceedings which has been laid upon 

 the table of the House of Commons, that mausoleum 

 of experience and reform, and the Nautical Magazine 

 does good .service in returning to the charge, and wi 

 hope it will keep worrying those serene " Departments " 

 which protect Go\ernments from criticism more 

 effectively than the bulkhead prevents calamity in 

 time of need. 



The Nautical Magazine .igrees with the strictures 

 we have been forced to apply to the untoward conduct 

 of " The Inquiry " which went blundering along every 

 false scent instead of steering straight to the vital 

 issue — the safety of the travelling public. The marvel 

 is that the President thought it possible to conclude 

 his deliberations within the year, for among much 

 that was irrelevant the evidence that really mattered 

 occupied but a small proportion of the time consumed. 



It is only a wild thought, but perhaps the public 

 might have been impressed if the notable array had 

 given their services to the unravelling of that which 

 concerns the nation so deeply, for what avails their 

 forensic skill when a serious journal like the Nautical 

 Magazine says : — " The speeches of counsel have 

 nothing of value for us ; they can be ignored " — and 

 e\eryone endorses this judgment of a profession which 

 has sacrificed too much to special pleading. 



This might be only by the way, were it not typical 

 of the whole inquiry in which the seaman and the 

 public alike were made subordinate to legal methods 

 which experience has shown to be equally devoid of 

 imagination and practical wisdom. 



As the editor of the Nautical Magazine well says : — 

 " We deplore the necessity of all this legal machinery. 

 When a Camperdcrtcn rams a Victoria a court-martial 

 composed of nautical men judges the case. When a 

 Titanic rams an iceberg the seaman is at the mercy of 

 lawyers. A few of these have been at sea ' a dog- 

 watch,' but they do not realise the intricacies of sea 

 usage as an experienced seaman does. Hence all this 

 waste of time and money, with little or nothing ,is the 

 outcome," 



Baily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes for August 

 gives some quaint woodcuts from an old hook of 

 hunting, showing Queen Bess in the hunting-field. 



" Mrs. presents her compliments to Lord 



Houghton. Her husband died on Tuesday, otherwise 

 he would have been delighted to dine with Lord 

 Houghton on Thursday next." Such, Sir Henry Lucy 

 tells us, in Cornhill for .August, was the reply Lord 

 Houghton received to a dinner invitation. 



