26 
ILLUSTRATIONS OF 
time^ it has been continually increasing. The num- 
ber of houses^ in the ratio of their increase^ has 
rather outstripped the number of inhabitants^ and 
will stand thus : — 
PROPORTION OF HOUSES TO THE INHABITANTS. 
1779, as 10 to 53.— 1801, as 10 to 36.-1811, as 10 to 58.— 1821, as 10 to 50. 
In 1801 the ratio of inhabited houses is so large, 
that I feel disposed to suspect some incorrectness in 
the returns. It does not appear probable that so 
large an increase of habitations would have taken 
place, without some increase in the population. 
Either, therefore, Mr. Young's statement must be 
wrong, or the returns made under the act of par- 
liament. We have no means of arriving at the data 
on which Mr. Young formed his conclusions, but, 
knowing that the other returns were made from 
authentic sources, I feel disposed to place reliance 
on them, and to place whatever error there may be, 
to the side of Mr. Young. 
The ratio of inhabited houses in 1821, is greater 
than in 1811, being in the former case as 10 to 50, 
and in the latter as 10 to 58. This is material to 
remark, since nothing more powerfully affects the 
health of the mass of the people, and increases the 
burials, than their being crowded together in small 
and close apartments. 
From 1801 to 1821, the ratio of the births and 
deaths is as follows. I have divided the whole 
