Ch. ix. in England (continued). 437 



crease would turn out to be very much greater 

 than the increase stated, and in the other very- 

 much less. 



Similar observations may be made with regard 

 to some of the other periods in the old table, par- 

 ticularly that between 1795 and 1800, which has 

 been alreadv noticed. 



It will be found on the other hand, that, if the 

 proportion of births to deaths during each period 

 be estimated with tolerable accuracy and com- 

 pared with the mean population, the rate of the 

 progress of the population determined by this cri- 

 terion will, in every period, agree very nearly with 

 the rate of progress determined by the excess of 

 the births above the deaths, after applying the 

 proposed corrections. And it is further worthy of 

 remark that, if the corrections proposed should be 

 in some degree inaccurate, as is probable, the 

 errors arising from any such inaccuracies are likely 

 to be very much less considerable than those which 

 must necessarily arise from the assumption on 

 which the old table is founded; namely, that the 

 births bear at all times the same proportion to the 

 population. 



Of course I do not mean to reject any estimates 

 of population formed in this way, when no better 

 materials are to be found ; but, in the present case, 

 the registers of the burials as well as baptisms are 

 given every year, as far back as 1780, and these 

 registers, with the firm ground of the last enume- 

 ration to stand upon, afford the means of giving a 

 more correct table of the population from 1780 



