TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 221 



lation, therefore, of the United Kingdom, including the Channel Islands and the Isle 

 of Man, might be set down at 29,334,788. The male population of the United 

 Kingdom, including the absent soldiers and s?ilors, was 14,380,634 ; the female 

 population was 14,954,154 ; the females, therefore, exceeded the males by 573,520. 

 To every 100 males there were 104 females. The disproportion of the sexes in this 

 country, no doubt, existed long before it was made apparent by the census of 1801, 

 and of late years it had evidently been increasing. It was well known that, in 

 England, of children born alive 105 boys were born to 100 girls ; and the proportion 

 was nearly the same in Scotland and France. The males continued in excess of 

 the females imtU the seventeenth year, when the nimiber of the two sexes was 

 nearly equal ; at subsequent ages the females were always in excess of the males, — 

 the change in the proportion being doubtless mainly diie to a difference in degree 

 of the dangers to which the sexes were exposed, to emigration, and to a lower rate 

 of mortality amongst females. The gross population of the United Kingdom in 

 1801 — taking an estimate for Ireland and the islands in the British seas, not then 

 enumerated — might be set down at 16,095,000. In sixty years, an addition of more 

 than 13j millions had been made to the inhabitants of the countiy, besides the vast 

 numbers who had left to foimd and people new colonies in Australia, or crossed 

 the Atlantic to settle in the United States or the colonies of America. For the 

 whole period of sixty years, the numbers showed a rate of increase amounting to 

 82 per cent., or on an average 1-01 per cent, annually. Dm-ing the first half of the 



Eeriod (1801-31) the rate of increase was more than twice as rapid as in the second 

 alf (1831-61). There was little emigration in the first thirty years ; whilst the 

 returns of the Emigration Commissioners furnished an account of nearly five mil- 

 lions of emigrants who sailed in the second period. The great seats of manufac- 

 tming and mining industry had maintained their rate of increase. This had espe- 

 cially been the case in the group of disti-icts having Manchester for a centre, which 

 had increased to the extent of 274,000 persons since 1851. A vast increase had 

 also taken place in the localities having their centres in Birmingham (187,000); 

 Newcastle (158,000) ; and Liverpool (106,000). London had increased 440,000, 

 and now contained a population which woidd soon reach 3,000,000. On the other 

 hand, a decreasing population had generally been shown by the retiu-ns from the 

 agricultural districts ; but how far this might be traced to special circumstances, 

 such as the diminution of employment consequent upon improved methods of cul- 

 tivation, and the substitution of the breeding of stock for tillage, and how far to 

 other causes inducing the unskilled labom-er to migTate from the coimtry to tovsms, 

 might form a profitable subject of investigation. An increase of population usually 

 implied increased happiness ; but the converse was not equally true ; for the inha- 

 bitants might decrease without necessarily suffering privation and misery. Great 

 anxiety had been felt on the subject of the residt of the inquii-y into the religious 

 denominations, which, for the first time, formed part of the decennial census in 

 Ireland. In obtaining these returns the enumerators met with every facility from 

 the clergy and people ; and, as onlj' 15 complaints had been made about them, the 

 Commissioners infen-ed that they were nearly correct. The following were the 

 results in round numbers : — Roman Catholics, 4,512,000, or 78 per cent, of the 

 whole ; members of the Established Chm-ch, 682,000, or 12 per cent.; Presbji:erians, 

 588,400, or 10 per cent. ; all other persuasions, 8740 : the Jews were only .322. The 

 religious persuasions of the ai-my and navy not having been distinguished, they 

 were here distributed in proportionate numbers under the several denominations. 

 The total nimiber of Protestants in Ireland was 1,280,000, giving the Roman 

 Catholics a majority of 3,232,C00, or about 3-5 Roman Catholics to one Protestant. 

 Even in "Protestant Ulster" there was a Roman Catholic majority of 17,000. 

 A comparison of these numbers with the residts of a special census of religious 

 professions taken in 1834 showed that during the generation that had passed since 

 that inquiry, while the population of Ireland had diminished by 2,190,000, the 

 Roman Catholics had diminished by 1,945,000, the numbers of the Established 

 Chiu-ch (with the Methodists) by 130,000, the Presbyterians and other Pro- 

 testants by 115,000. A new era had happily dawned for Ireland, although clouds 

 stiU obscured her horizon. Evidences of the increasing material prospeiitj^ of the 

 countiy were not wanting ; and it might confidently be anticipated that the census 

 of 1871 would show by figures the effects of social changes now in progress. The 



