TEANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 821 



that the figures are not fairly comparable for the early period, owing to the 

 specially large emigration from Ireland, which took away from the apparent 

 numbers of the United Kingdom as a whole, but still allowed of as great an 

 increase in the manufacturing parts of the country as there has been later, then we 

 may take the figures for England only, and what we find is — between 1855 and 

 1865 an increase from 18,800,000 to 21,100,000, or 12^ per cent. ; between 1865 

 and 1875 from 21,100,000 to 24,000,000, or nearly 14 per cent.; and between 

 1875 and 1885 from 24,000,000 to 27,500,000, or 14A per cent. Whether, there- 

 fore, we take the figures for the United Kingdom or for England only, what we find 

 is a greater increase of population in the last ten years than in either of the previous 

 decades when the rate of material growth seemed so much greater. If there had 

 been such real diminution in the rate of material growth, ought there not to have 

 been some increase in the want of employment and in pauperism to correspond ? 



It is one of the most notorious facta of the case, however, that there has been 

 no increase, but instead a very steady decrease of pauperism, excepting in Ireland, 

 ■which is so small, however, as not to affect the general result. As regards England 

 the figures are very striking indeed. The average number of paupers and pro- 

 portion to population have been as follows in quinquennial periods in England 

 since 1855 : — 



Number of Proportion to 



Paupers Population per Cent. 



1855-59 . 895,000 4-7 



1860-64 948,000 4-7 



1865-69 962,000 4-5 



1870-74 952,000 4-2 



1875-79 753,000 3-1 



1880-84 787,000 3-0 



Thus there has been a steady diminution in the proportion to the population all 

 through, accompanied by a diminution in the absolute numbers between 186.5-69 and 

 1875-79, though there has since been a slight increase. In spite of all that can be 

 urged as to a more stringent poor-law administration having made all the difference, 

 it is difficult to believe that a real falling-off of a serious kind in the rate of our 

 material growth in late years as compared with the period just before should not 

 have led to some real increase of pauperism. Change of administration may do 

 much, but it cannot alter the effect of any serious increase in the want of employment 

 in a country. 



The corresponding figures as to Scotland are much the same : — 



Number of Proportion to 

 Paupers Population per Cent. 



1855-59 123,000 4-2 



1860-64 125,000 4-2 



1865-69 131,000 4-3 



1870-74 123,000 3-7 



1875-79 103,000 2-9 



1880-84 100,000 27 



Here there is the same steady diminution in the proportion of pauperism to 

 population all through as we have seen in the case of England, accompanied in 

 this case by a steady diminution of the absolute number of paupers since 1865-69. 

 The Scotch administi-ation has been totally independent of the English, but the 

 same results are produced. 



In Ireland, as already hinted, the history has been different. There has been 

 an increase in the pauperism accompanied by a decline of population. But Ireland 

 is too small to affect the general result. 



We are thus confronted by the fact that if there had been a real check of 

 a serious kind to the rate of our material growth in the last ten years as compared 

 with the ten years just before, there ouglit to have been some increase in the want 

 of employment and in pauperism, but instead of there being such an increase there 

 is a decline. The population apparently, while increasing even more rapidly in the 



