REVIEWS, TRANSLATIONS, AND SELECTED ARTICLES. 



131 



authentic figures wherewith to deal. Let us, however, see what these 

 exact figures tell us, which will be best done in the following table : — 



Annual Table of Births and Deaths in Scotland from \st January^ 

 1855, till 30th June, 1861. 



Year. 



1855 



'56 



'5T 



'58 



'59 



'60 



'61(halfyear) 



Births. 



Deaths. 



93,349 

 101,821 

 103,628 

 104,195 

 106,732 

 105,704 



54,625 



670,054 



62,004 

 58,529 

 61,925 

 63,532 

 61,754 

 68,055 

 33,863 



409,662 



From the foregoing table we at once discover that during the 

 last six years and a-half the actual increase of the population from 

 the excess of births over deaths amounted to 260,392 ; and, assuming 

 that the average annual birth and death-rates then existing difiered 

 but little from those existing during the three and a-half years that 

 preceded the passing of the Kegistration Act for Scotland — which 

 rates were, say, birth-rate 3*41 per cent., death-rate 2*08 percent., — 

 then it would follow that during that period of three and a-half 

 years preceding 1st January, 1855, the births must have amounted 

 to 346,115, and the deaths to 211,120, showing an excess of births 

 over deaths of 134,995, and which, when added to the excess of 

 births over deaths during the last six and a-half years, makes a total 

 natural increase of the population in ten years, within the boundaries 

 of Scotland, of 395,387, or at the rate of about 13*6 per cent. It is 

 therefore quite evident, that had Scotland not been subject to the 

 eifects of a serious emigration, her population at last Census would 

 have amounted to 3,284,129, instead of 3,061,251. 



If such, therefore, may be taken as a proximate picture of the 

 real natural progress of the population of Scotland, it necessarily 

 follows, considering the immigration from Ireland into the West of 

 Scotland, that the tide of emigrating Scotch to other countries must 

 have been very great, especially during the last ten years ; seeing 

 that in addition to all the Irish immigration— which, however, has 



