1803. ] 
( 405 ) 
~THE POPULATION ACT. 
As the refulis of the late A& for afcertaining the Population of Great Britain have not 
yet appeared before the Public in any form, except in the volumes printed by order of 
the Houfe of Commons, of which no more were taken off than fupplied the members of 
voth Houfes, and certain officers of flate, we propofe to prefent the whole of thofe 
refults to the Readers of the Monthly Magazine. 
We have begun this interefiing feries 
wvith the Obfervations on the Returns, the value of which will be apparent, and 
after thefe obfervations we fhall infert the fummary of every county, containing the 
totals of every hundred, and of every market-town, 
The Public will duly appreciate the worth and importance of this article, and we pre- 
Jue none of our Readers will confider twa or three pages, upon fo interefiing a fub- 
ject, in every Number, during the next two years, as mifapplied. 
eo 
OBSERVATIONS oz the RESULTS of the 
POPULATION ACT, 41 GEO. ILI. 
‘III. 
4 ROM the regifters of baptifms, bu- 
rials, and marriages, a probable efti- 
mate of the increafe or diminution of the 
population of Great Britain throughout the 
lait century, is to be attempted. 
So tar as the marriage-regifter of Eng- 
Jand and Wales extends, there is no dan- 
ger of error in depending on it for this 
purpofe; but from the many alleged 
caufes of deficiency in the regiftry of bu- 
rials and baptifms, it may be urged that 
no fafe deduction can be made therefrom. 
It cannot be denied, that the mortality, 
and confequently the number of burials, 
in any infulated year, is an irregular cri- 
terion of population. ‘The regiftered bu- 
rials in the la# fucceffive twenty-one years 
in fome inftances fhew a variation of above 
eighteen thoufand in fucceflive years ; and 
as the amount of the baptifms appears 
not to vary above half as much from the 
circumftances of the times and feafons, it 
is certainly the preferable criterion for the 
early part of the century, of which only 
every tenth year appears in the abftract, 
The objection that has been urged 
againit the authority of any collection of 
the parifh-regifters of baptifms, is, that 
regilters were in former periods more de- 
fective from negligence than they have 
been in the years nearer the prefent time. 
As no particular date can be afligned 
when the improvement happened, it moft 
be fuppofed to be progrefiive quite to the 
prefent time: and as the manner of regif- 
tering man iages according to the act which 
took place in 1754, admits of no fufpicion 
of deficiency in that regifter, it is to be ex- 
pected that the regifteved baptifms muft at 
prefent be in higher proportion to the 
marriages than they were fifty years fince, 
if this be not the cafe, the objection 
drawn from the fuppofed progreflive im- 
MonruLy Maa, No, 102, 
L 
provement in the regiftry cannot be ap- 
plicable to the laft half of the century. 
It is proper therefore to find this pro~ 
portion at as many periods as the collection 
of regifters affords an opportunity of fo 
doing: and herein it is reafonable to af 
fume, that the marriages of any current 
year, and of the four preceding years, 
mutt chiefly influence the number of bap- 
tifms in it. 
The medium average of marriages in 
1760 and the four years preceding it, may 
be taken at 51,600 ; the regiftered bap- 
tifms of the fame year 1760 appear to 
have been 487,000 ; therefore the regif- 
tered baptifms were at that time as 362 to 
Too marriages, 
In this manner the following Table of 
Proportions has been formed : 
Baptifms Marriages 
1760 - 362 = to - 100 
1770 - 356 - tO = 1300 
EPGO Ma CQKTe a EOL) =) Oe 
P7R5 Sk 9 FG's. o= 4) to) )=) 2noo 
1799 = 365 - (0 - 100 
AP OSVE THGRS. is) (fois tog 
1800 - 347 .*+ to - 100 
Tt appears hence that the proportion of 
regiflered baptifms to marriages has con- 
tinued much the fame; the extremes of 
the fluf&uation differing only a twentieth, 
part, and that difference tending to prove, 
not that the regifters are more accurate, 
but rather lefs accurate now than for- 
merly. But the dearths which afflicted 
England in the years 1795 and 1800, in 
all prebability lowered the proportion of | 
births as much as it appears to have 
lowered the preporticn of baptifms in- 
thofe years. So that fince the year 1755, 
the regifter of baptiims has not been more 
or lefs accurately kept ; and hence it ap. 
pears, that the amount of regiftered bap- 
tifms will give the fame refults as that of 
marriages in any calculation of the in- 
3G croale 
