The Census of 1891 and Rural De'pojndation. 43 
of so many competent inquirers, and recently asserted afresh in 
the reports of the Assistant-Commissioners sent by the Labour 
Commission to visit certain selected districts, could be des- 
titute of foundation. The truth remains that Mr. Cannan’s 
figures, fairly interpreted, do not lead to such an improbable 
conclusion. “A decline,” he remarks, “of net immigration into 
the towns is, of course, not necessarily accompanied by a decline of 
net emigration from the country. Migration goes on not only 
between the towns and the rest of England, but between the 
towns and the rest of the world outside England.” 
In this circumstance is to be found the probable explanation 
of the congruity of what Mr. Cannan may claim to have esta- 
blished — the decline of urban net immigration — with the belief, so 
widely held, and so authoritatively supported, of rural emigration. 
The Registrar-General himself observes that “ emigration to foreign 
countries increased enormously ” 1 during the last decade ; and 
Mr. Cannan shows that, as a matter of fact, the net emigration 
from the rest of the country outside the towns has slightly 
increased. “ The whole country,” he remarks, “ lost by migra- 
tion 469,189 more ” persons in the last than in the preceding 
decade, and certain statistics render it probable that this 
“ increased loss was divided between the towns and the rest of 
the country.” “ A large portion of the diminution of urban net 
immigration must be due to a change in the balance of migration 
between the towns and places outside England.” There is no 
doubt that immigration into England and Wales from those 
places has fallen off, while emigration to them has increased. 
The final conclusion, accordingly, which Mr. Cannan 
reaches, is that, “ except in the case of a few of the most 
prosperous towns, the influx from the country districts is 
nearly or completely outweighed by the efflux to the rest of 
the world.” This result undoubtedly supports his contention 
that the complaint, so often and so loudly urged, that the 
urban labourer is dragged down by the competition of rural 
immigrants, is not well founded ; and it may be the case, as 
he affirms, that it is “ highly probable that in the future our 
great towns will be regarded as the cradle rather than the grave 
of population.” But his article affords no justification for the 
hasty inferences which have been drawn by newspaper writers 
respecting the unreality or unimportance of rural emigration, 
and it leaves this question in much the same position as that in 
which it found it. 2 
1 He adds, also, that there has been no corresponding increase in migration 
within the borders of England and Wales. 
2 The percentage of “ stationary natives ” in 1891 was, the Registrar-General 
