58 The Census of 1891 and Rural Depopulation. 
It is true that, according to Dr. Longstaft’s method, the first 
of these four counties would fall out for the period from 1881 
to 1891, although it would occupy a high place on the list for 
the previous decade and for the whole period of twenty years. 
But counties which in this list show as great a decrease as 8*3 
per cent, in the case of Durham ; of 7 ’3 in that of Leicester- 
shire ; of 7*1 in that of Cumberland ; of 6'7 in that of Mon- 
mouthshire ; of 5-7 in that of Westmoreland ; of 5*3 in that of 
Northumberland ; of 5T in that of Northamptonshire ; of 5-0 in 
that of Denbighshire ; of 4'9 in that of Lancashire ; of 4‘8 in that 
of the West Riding of Yorkshire; and of 1*0 in that of Essex, 
for the last decade, are entirely excluded from the list of the 
Registrar-General. A county, again, like the East Riding of 
Yorkshire occupies a high place with Dr. LongstafF, but a low 
position with the Registrar-General, and does not appear at all in 
column A. Nor do the counties of Lincolnshire, Bedfordshire, 
Wiltshire, and the North Riding of Yorkshire, although the first 
and last are high up in all the other columns. 
VI. Concluding Remarks. 
For these, as for other reasons, the connexion of the figures 
with agricultural changes is not difficult to establish. As we 
proceed from the counties as a whole to distinguish the more 
rural districts, and as the methods we adopt are more carefully 
calculated to eliminate the urban element, the number of 
counties which exhibit a decrease of population grows. In 
column A there are only thirteen ; in column B the number 
is increased to twenty-six ; while Dr. Longstaff’s tables show 
as many as forty-seven counties for the last decade, forty-four 
for the ten years from 1871 to 1881, and forty-seven for the 
whole twenty years. 
Of the counties, again, in Table IV., those of the East 
Riding of Yorkshire, of Lincolnshire, Bedfordshire, Wiltshire, 
Herefordshire, Brecknockshire, and Cardiganshire, are specially 
distinguished, as we have seen, by the Registrar-General as 
counties in which there are no great manufactures and all the 
labour is of an agricultural character ; and, of the other counties 
so distinguished, those of Norfolk, Suffolk, Hertfordshire, Oxford- 
shire, Dorsetshire, and Devonshire, appear in the columns of 
Dr. Longstaff’s tables for both decades; and Cambridgeshire, 
which is the only county remaining, appears in the tables for 
1871 to 1881. 
All the counties, again, in Table IV., with the exception 
of Flintshire, Cornwall, and the North and East Ridings of York- 
