44 
The Census o/ 1891 and Rural Depopulation. 
III. The Occupations Returns of the Census. 
Dismissing, then, the interesting figures which Mr. Cannan 
has brought out from the census returns, we may now proceed to 
investigate the problem from the positive side of rural emigra- 
tion rather than the negative side, which he has treated, of 
urban immigration ; and we may endeavour to ascertain the actual 
position with as much accuracy as the figures of the Registrar- 
General will permit. We must not expect to find that the broad 
evidence furnished by such vast masses of figures can correspond 
exactly with estimates to which the observations of individuals, 
however painstaking and unprejudiced, have given rise. Nor 
must we look with any precision of detail in the colourless 
records of the census for a measure of the various causes which 
have promoted the movement. They are probably as mixed in 
their origin as they are connected in their effects, and it is futile 
to attempt to isolate them, and to assign to each its due influ- 
ence. The greater gaiety of life in the towus, which is, no 
doubt, reflected in the notable increase of actors, musicians, 
performers, and photographers, * 1 who may all be regarded as 
“ ministering to art and amusement,” may, and probably does, 
as much by the influence of vague rumour as by any certain in- 
ducement, exercise an attraction. The growth of teachers, 2 again, 
testifies to the spread of education, which broadens the horizon 
and enlarges the ambitions of the rustic youth, and leads them to 
seek a wider and more likely sphere for their attainment than 
can be offered by the country village. But the endeavour to 
trace such connecting-links as these, when we pass beyond the 
broadest generalisations, might soon lead to fanciful illusion, and 
would rather afford temptation to the exhibition of audacious 
ingenuity than furnish any solid basis of reliable information. 
We may therefore pass without delay to more certain evidence. 
The Occupations Returns of the census are, as the Registrar- 
General admits, far from satisfactory ; but it is possible to draw 
from them certain broad deductions. The main difficulty of the 
returns arises, it is stated, “ from the extremely inaccurate and 
inadequate manner in which uneducated, and often, indeed, 
even educated, persons describe their calling.” “The most that 
it is reasonable to expect ” is that the data collected “ shall give 
states, 74'86, as compared with 75-19 in 1881. But the agricultural counties 
of Radnor and Rutland had not retained 50 per cent., and the proportion 
was not much higher in Herefordshire, Huntingdonshire, Oxfordshire, Shrop- 
shire, and Brecknockshire. 
1 They have increased by 53 per cent, in the decade 1881-90. 
2 15 5 per cent, in 1881-90, 30 per cent, in 1871-80. 
