14 THE CENSUS OF 186k 



some considerable emigration of this class, or a much lower natural 

 increase than of the French population. 



In Upper Canada, from our ignorance of the rate of mortality, it is 

 not very easy to estimate the eifect of immigration, hut some impor- 

 tant indications may be obtained from a comparison with former 

 Censuses. The first enumeration of the people in Upper Canada ^i& 

 which I am acquainted, was in 1811, when the numbers are stated as 

 77,000. Up to 1 824, when the population was 151,097, the anrnial 

 increase was at the rate of 5.32 per cent. From that date until ik& 

 Union we had a tolerably correct enumeration almost annually, and 

 we may exhibit the successive additions at nearly equal intervals. 



Date. Population. Eate of Annual Increase.. 



1824 151,097 



1832 261,060 8.77 



1842 486,055 6.41 



1852 952,004 5.6^ 



1861 1,396,091 4.35 



The last rate, which is the average for nine years, is less than the 

 lowest recorded for any previous year, with the single exception of 

 1826, when it was 3.59. The greatest increase recorded is that fr&m 

 1832 to 1834, the average for the two years being 10.73. This con- 

 stant decrease of accessions from without, point to a rapidly approacli- 

 ing period, when we must mainly depend for increase of strength 

 upon the natural growth of the people already settled in the country. 

 A large proportion of the increase is, however, still to be attributed to 

 immigration, . and it is an interesting enquiry what that proportion 

 may be, and how much is due to natural growth. The data are very 

 imperfect, but we may arrive at a very rough approximation, or at 

 least ascertain the limits within which the additions from immigration 

 and from natural increase must have been. 



If we assume the natural increase of Upper Canada to be at the 

 annual rate of 2^ per cent., which is nearly the rate arrived at for tlie 

 whole of Lower Canada, from the Prothonotaries' returns, there would 

 remain an addition of 207,170 to the population unaccounted for, and 

 which, on this supposition, must have arisen from immigration. Tbe 

 returns of the Emigration Office shew, that from 1852 to 1860, both 

 years inclusive, 225,865 steerage passengers arrived at the ports of 



