THE CANADIAN JOURNAL. 



NEW SE RIES. 



No. LV.— JANUARY, 1865. 



THE CENSUS OF 1861. 



BY JOHN liANGTON, M.A., 

 PEESIDEBTT OF THE LITEEAKT AND HI3T0EICAI, SOCIETY OP QUEBEC. 



From the Journal of the Lit. and Hist. Soc. of Quebec. 



Upon the appearance of the first volume of the Census of Canada, 

 I undertook an examination of it, with a view of ascertaining whether 

 I could extract from it any useful results with respect to the vital 

 statistics of this country ; and especially with relation to the natural 

 increase of the two sections of the Province.' Before commencing the 

 work, I had reason to entertain serious doubts as to the trustworthi- 

 ness of the figures with which I had to deal, and at each successive 

 step of the investigation, I only became the more convinced, that 

 some of the figures given were manifestly wrong, and that much 

 caution must be exercised in assuming the truth of anything that was 

 to be found there. This was not a very satisfactory basis upon which 

 to found any conclusions, and, in point of fact, I found that a large 

 amount of rather laborious calculations had been entirely thrown 

 away, from the evident worthlessness of the foundation on which they 

 had been based. I persevered, however, because it is only from a 

 minute analysis that any judgment can be formed of the extent to 

 which some portions of the work may be relied upon ; and I am 

 induced to offer this paper to the Society, partly with the object of 



