The Census of 1891 and Rural Depopulation. 47 
only 333 less than at the previous census, the number in the 
earlier year being 223,943, ancl in the later 223,610. Here, 
again, the figures for the preceding decade indicated a con- 
siderable decline, amounting to 10 per cent., while up to 
1871 the number of the class had grown with each successive 
census. To compensate, however, for the small diminution in 
the number of farmers between the last and the present census 
there was a drop of over 10 per cent, in the number of male 
relatives living in the farmhouse. There was a similar decline 
in the number of agricultural labourers and shepherds, who 
have been grouped together in the last line of Table II. In 
1881 the number was 870,798, of whom 830,452 were males 
and 40,346 females. In 1891 the number of males was 756,557, 
and of females 24,150. The total, which' amounted to 780,707, 
exhibited a diminution of 10 - 3 per cent. In 1851 this class of 
the population was enumerated as consisting of 1,253,786 
persons ; and accordingly, within forty years it has lost more 
than a third of its numbers. The number of farm bailiffs, lastly, 
after undergoing a considerable increase in the previous decade, 
diminished during this. Whether the change is due to the fact 
that between 1871 and 1881 farms were taken in hand by land- 
lords averse to recognising the depression as permanent by granting 
reductions of rent, while between 1881 and 1891 the stern logic 
of facts, convincing them of their error, induced them to prefer 
retaining an old tenant by almost any concession to indulging 
in the risky venture of farming their own land, 1 may be left to 
the curious to determine ; but the change itself is certainly 
noteworthy. 
Comparing, then, the figures of the last three censuses, we 
find that, as regards the first class — that of the farmers — the 
decline between 1871 and 1881 amounted to 10 per cent. ; the 
decline in the number of male relatives was but slight in com- 
parison, and that in the number of agricultural labourers was, 
as in the succeeding decade, some 10 per cent. Taking the 
three subdivisions as a whole, the decrease seems to have been 
similar in both periods ; but it is noteworthy that in the earlier 
decade the farmers themselves should have diminished, while in 
the later the decrease should apparently have been transferred 
to their sons and relatives. It is true that in 1871 “retired 
farmers ” were also included in the reckoning ; but it seems that 
this circumstance would only account for some 2 per cent, of the 
diminution. Here, as in the instance of the farm bailiffs, we 
1 The Agricultural Returns of 1891 “indicate a rather larger surface 
, occupied by tenants, and a slightly smaller amount in the owners’ hands.” 
