874 Observations on the 
The aggregate number of white inhabitants in 1850 was 
19,619,366, exhibiting a gain upon the number of the same 
class in 1840 of 5,423,371, or relative increase of 88°20 per 
cent.; but, excluding the 153,000 free population supposed 
to have been acquired by the addition of territory since 
1840, the gain is 5,270,371, or an increase of 87°14 per cent. 
The number of slaves by this census is 8,198,298 ; and 
it shows an increase of 711,085, equal to 28°58 per cent. 
Deducting 19,000 for the probable slaye population of 
Texas in 1840, the result of the comparison will be slightly 
different. The absolute increase will be 692,085, and the 
rate per cent. 27°83. 
The number of free coloured people in 1850 was 
428,637 ; in 1840, 386,245. The increase of this class has 
been 42,392, or 10°95 per cent. 
From 1830 to 1840, the increase of the whole population 
was 32°67 per cent. At the same rate of advancement, the 
absolute gain for the ten years last past would have been 
5,578,388, or 426,515 less than it has been, without in- 
cluding the increase consequent upon addition of territory. 
The decennial increase of the most favoured nations of 
Europe is less than 1} per cent. per annum, while with the 
United States it is at the rate of 3} per cent.* According 
% With reference to the Australian Colonies, the census of 1851 ex- 
hibits in a striking light the surprising progress in population of Victoria 
even prior to the rise of the gold discoveries. Since 1846 its centesimal 
increase is stated at 135:24, or an average annual increase in these five 
years of 27:4 per cent. 
New South Wales during the same period shows a centesimal increase 
of 21-20, or at the average annual rate of 4:24 per cent. 
Tasmania shows only an increase of 4:12 per cent. between 1848, the 
date of the previous census, and 1851, affording scarcely the European 
average. Peculiar inducements have for a series of years acted upon a 
large portion of the community to quit this Colony and select Victoria 
for their residence; and have thus tended to diminish the population of 
Tasmania, while they contributed to swell the stream of emigration to the 
shores of the sister Colony. 
