While the word census was thus applied to the taxation of the Middle Ages, it will readily be understood that in its modern sense it received no practical application, since neither taxation nor the adjustment of social rank required a numbering of the people; and the statistic or economic ends of such a process were as little known as they had been to the Romans. Under the despotic Governments of the Continent, however, the tendency to central organization for purposes of administration and police prepared the way for statistical inquiries into the numbers of the inhabitants of particular areas whenever there should occur an occasion for enumerating them. It was in Britain, with its abstinent Government and unrestrained people, that the want of population statistics became most flagrantly conspicuous. It is difficult at present to realize the idea that, long after Adam Smith’s time, the number of the inhabitants of the British empire could only be guessed at as the populousness of China is at the present day; and, as in all matters of statistics, which have their own simple solution through specific inquiry, the guesses about the population of the empire were not only vague but extravagantly contradictory. During the 18th century, the most trustworthy geographers were generally those who did not venture on an estimate of the population even in those European states which had the best means of enumeration at their command.

The first effort to take a census of the population of Great Britain was made in 1801; it did not then extend to Ireland. The success which attended this and the two succeeding efforts was mainly owing to the zeal and ability of Mr Rickman, the assistant-clerk of the House of Commons. Where there is an organization like that of many in the European states for preserving a constant official record of all the fluctuations of the population, not only in their absolute numbers throughout a whole territory, but in the relative numbers in its respective parts as they may be affected by fluctuations, systematic arrangements are thus prepared not only for obtaining a general census at any one moment, but for checking its accuracy and classifying its elements. But to deal at once with the raw material in the self-governed British empire required great ingenuity and sagacity. A census, to be accurate, must be taken on a uniform system, and must be taken simultaneously. Any enumeration going over a tract of time, were it but two days, must be more or less inaccurate, and destitute of the means of correcting its own inaccuracies. Besides the mere abstract numbers of the people, there is much collateral information to be recorded. This, besides its own intrinsic value, is necessary as a check on the numbers; since a distribution into elements according to sex, age, social condition, occupation, and the like, affords a self-acting control on the accuracy of mere figures. In a census, indeed, it is a simple rule, that the information returned should be extended as far beyond the main facts as with safety to these it can be carried. The tendency towards complexity in the nature of the returns must always be checked by the liability of the people at large to make blunders and create confusion where they are required to attest facts not of the most obvious nature, and by the difficulty of getting a number of subordinate officers to understand and carry out a complex classification. Hence there was great difficulty in obtaining a classification according to occupation, from its complex intermixture with the classification according to families. Thus, in the first census, there was an attempt to classify the people under three divisions—(1) persons chiefly employed in agriculture, (2) persons chiefly employed in trade, manufactures, or handicraft, and (3) all other persons not comprised in the two preceding classes. But Mr Rickman found the returns unsatisfactory, from the difficulty of deciding “whether the females of the family, children, and servants were to be classed as of no occupation, or of the occupation of the adult males of the family.” In the two subsequent enumerations, the rule adopted was to record the occupation of the head of the family; but here comes a new element of confusion, in the difficulty of defining the head of a family. Experience, and an anxious desire to combine simplicity and comprehensiveness in the returns, were the only means by which such difficulties could be mitigated.

The enumerations of 1841 and 1851 in England were much facilitated by the uniform system of registration of births, marriages, and deaths which came into operation on 1st July 1837, and which not only afforded the means of checking the accuracy of the returns, but provided a prompt and skilled machinery accustomed to statistical work. Far more dependence could now be placed on the discretion and skill of the officers to whom the local duties were committed; and the returns were made more minute and complete. In Scotland it was necessary to adopt the method of employing the parish schoolmasters to perform the local duty of enumerating the population in the country districts. In Ireland the first attempt at a générai census was made in 1811, but it was decidedly unsuccessful. It was repeated in 1821, but went no further than a bare enumeration of doubtful accuracy. The census taken there in 1831 was subject to correction in 1834, to make it the basis of the new system of national education. In the two subsequent enumerations the aid of the admirable constabulary force, and the use of an ordnance survey, nearly complete in 1841, went far to supply the want of permanent local statistical machinery.

The census of 1851 was taken on the 31st day of March, the previously distributed schedules beiug then collected. They embraced a return of the local and other conditions of the population during the preceding night.

“At the present census,” say the commissioners, “it was resolved to exhibit, not merely the statistics, as before, of parishes, and more completely of parliamentary and municipal boroughs, but also of such other large towns in England and Scotland as appeared sufficiently important for separate mention, and of all the ecclesiastical districts and new ecclesiastical parishes which, under the provision of various Acts of Parliament, have, during the last forty years, been created in England and Wales. In addition also to the inquiry concerning the occupation, age, and birthplace of the population, it was determined to ascertain the various relationships (such as husband, wife, son, daughter), the civil condition (as married, unmarried, widower, or widow), and the numberof persons blind, deaf, and dumb.”

Another novel feature in the census of 1851 was an attempt to supply the statistics of the ecclesiastical and educational condition of the country. It stated the amount of church accommodation at the command of each religious denomination; while a return was procured of those in attendance in the several churches on Sunday, 30th March. The attendance throughout thirty-five religious communities in England on that forenoon was returned as 4,428,338, of which the proportion assigned to the Church of England was 2,371,732. The returns for Scotland, admittedly very imperfect, give a total of 943 y 951, of which 351,454 belonged to the Established Church. The English report was accompanied by an elaborate history of the several religious communities.

The enumerations in Ireland exhibit statistical novelties of a totally different kind. In 1841 it was resolved, as that country so totally depended on the amount of its agricultural produce, to obtain the statistics of its rural economy. The surface of the country was divided unde v five heads—arable, plantations, uncultivated, towns, and water; and, with a view to these divisions, a return was made of the character of each farm or other agricultural allotment, with the quantity of live stock and other relevant facts. The attempt was found so successful, that it was renewed with more full effect in 1851, producing 727 tabular folio pages of very valuable information.

Census of 1861.

The enumeration in 1861 was the seventh census of England, and was taken under the superintendence of the Registrar-General, under the powers conferred by three Acts of Parliament, applicable respectively to England, Scotland, and Ireland. By this census it was found that the population of the United Kingdom was 29,321,288, and that of each pf the four divisions of the kingdom was as follows :— England and Wales, 20,228,497; Scotland, 3,096,808; Ireland 5,850,309; islands in the British seas, 145,674.

The population of England and Wales, excluding the portion of the army, navy, and merchant seamen abroad, was 20,066,224. The annual rate of increase per cent, of the population in the United Kingdom, in the ten years 1851-61 was 0 55, viz.:—England and Wales, 144; Scotland, 0’58; Ireland, (decrease), 123; and islands in the British seas, 0O2.

The local machinery by means of which the census of England was taken in 1861 differed in no material respect from that employed in 1851. In subdividing the country the registrars were to see that the enumeration districts were not too extensive or too populous; they were not to contain more than 200 houses in towns, so that they could be enumerated by an active man within the compass of a single day. An important feature consisted of the publication of the number of houses and population in “civil counties” and in lieutenancy subdivisions. The number of blind and of deaf and dumb from birth, the number of foreigners, and the number of naturalized British subjects, were shown in 1861 for the first time. In the case of Scotland, the enumeration was for the first time required to be made apart from that of England, under the superintendence of the Registrar-General of Scotland. From 1855 Scotland had the advantage of a national system of registration, and the census of 1861 was therefore no longer taken through the agency of the sheriffs in counties, and of the provosts or chief magistrates in the royal and parliamentary burghs, but through the agency of 1001 local registrars of births, deaths, and marriages, assisted by 8075 enumerators. The forms and instructions issued were all based on, and in most cases virtually the same as, those used in England in the census of 1851. “Flats ” were not reckoned as houses in Scotland in 1861. All the details as to population, <fcc., in 1851, were for civil parishes and civil counties only. In 1861 the returns were for registration districts and registration counties. The novel features in 1861 for Scotland, which merit special notice, were the number of families in every parish and county, the number of houses having windows, and the number of children between the ages of five and fifteen years in attendance at school. In 1861 it was ascertained that the islands in Scotland amounted to 787 in number, and of these 186 were inhabited by one or more persons on the census day.

The tables in 1861 relating to the ages, conjugal conditions, birthplaces, blind, deaf and dumb, and to the occupations combined with ages, were published uniformly with those in 1851. A comparison can be made of the occupations at the different ages with the death registers, and the comparative mortality prevailing among the different classes and ranks of society can now be ascertained as well as the comparative healthiness of each occupation or trade.

Ireland, 1861.—The enumeration of the people of Ireland in 1861 was effected for the first time altogether (excepting the metropolis) by the officers and men of the constabulary force. The returns show—for provinces, counties, baronies, parishes, towns, and parliamentary boroughs—the area, population, and number of houses, the number of families with their pursuits and the means upon which they were dependent, also the religious professions and education of the inhabitants, the number of families living in each house, and the amount of their accommodation by counties in rural and civic districts, the birthplaces of the people, their condition as to marriage, and their occupations for each county, also tabular summaries relating to vital statistics.

The ages of the people in Ireland were incorrectly returned in 1861, and in the tables of the occupations of the people a large number are left unclassified.

Iu the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, the census was taken in conformity with instructions from the Home Office, by the respective Lieutenant-Governors acting in conjunction with the English central office.

First Imperial Census, 1871.

In 1871 the first Imperial census of the British empire was taken, and the population was found to amount to 234,762,593, living upon 7,769,449 square miles of territory; comprising England and Wales, with a population of 22,856,164; Scotland, 3,392,559; Ireland, 5,449,186: islands in the British seas, 147,470; and British Colonies and Possessions (exclusive of the army, navy, and merchant seamen abroad, as they are included in the populations just quoted), 202,917,214. The population of England and Wales, excluding the portion of the army, navy, and merchant seamen abroad, was 22,712,266. The annual rate of increase per cent, of the population in the United Kingdom in the ten years 1861-71 was 0 - 83, viz. :— in England and Wales, 123; Scotland, 092; Ireland (decrease), 0 - 71; islands in the British seas, 0 , 12.

In this great undertaking the work was subdivided for convenience of execution. In conformity with the Act of Parliament the census of England and Wales was taken by the Registrar-General, assisted by Dr Farr and J. T. Hammick. The population was enumerated in one day (3d April 1871) by 32,543 enumerators, employed under 2195 registrars and 626 superintendent registrars.

Instructions were issued to the superintendent registrars, and to the registrars of births and deaths, for their guid ∙ ance in taking the census, and one of the duties requiring their earliest attention was the division of the country into enumeration districts, and just here the registrar had an important duty to fulfil, for he was directed to see that the boundaries of parishes, townships, ecclesiastical districts, municipal and parliamentary cities and boroughs, urban sanitary districts, and all other of the various conflicting and confusing territorial subdivisions of the country, were duly indicated. Most of the registrars laid down the boundaries of their enumeration districts on maps, so as to ensure that no part of their districts was omitted.

These plans of division were first submitted to the various superintendent registrars, and finally to the Registrar-General for approval. The 32,543 enumerators were required to be intelligent, trustworthy, and active, to write well, and to have some knowledge of arithmetic. They were not to be infirm or of weak health, not younger than 18 years, nor older than 65; and they were required to be persons likely to conduct themselves with strict propriety and civility. 627 of the public or charitable institutions were enumerated by the masters or chief resident officers.

In order to facilitate the proper designation of all roads, streets, and houses, a circular was addressed to the mayor of each municipal city and borough, and to the chairman of every local board, suggesting that previous to the census all unnamed roads and streets should be named, and all houses numbered. Circulars were also addressed to the press explaining the objects and uses of the census, so as to aid in securing complete and correct returns,

The enumeration of 1871 was a “nominal” census.

The householders’ schedules were delivered by the enumerators prior to 3d April. Every separate occupier received a schedule, and this schedule was so prepared in accordance with the 4th section of the Census Act, that, as shown in the annexed example, the name, sex, age, rank, profession or occupation, conjugal condition, relation to head of family, and birthplace of every person who abode in any house, on the night of Sunday, 2d April 1871, might be returned; the blind, deaf and dumb, imbecile, or lunatic were distinguished. At the census of 1871 the numbers of lunatics out of asylums and of imbeciles or idiots were ascertained for the first time.

[table]

The despatch of forms and instructions began as soon as the office in Craig’s Court was opened, and included 6,500,000 householders’ schedules, weighing about 41 tons. The enumeration books and forms sent out weighed in the aggregate about 54 tons. But in addition to these there were sent out from the central office no less than 115 different descriptions of printed instructions, forms, and circulars, including a calendar, so that certain operations might be summarized.

The metropolitan, the municipal, and the county police afforded help in enumerating the houseless population. The strength of the navy, in forms prepared for the purpose, was returned by the Admiralty; the merchant seamen, in port or out at sea, by Her Majesty’s Customs, and by the Registrar-General of merchant seamen; and His Royal Highness the Field-Marshal Commanding-in-chief supplied full returns of the various particulars respecting the army. The numbers of British subjects in foreign states and in India and the population of the Colonies were obtained through Her Majesty’s Secretaries of State for Foreign Affairs, India, and the Colonies.

Welsh schedules were issued for the use of a certain number of the Welsh people, and it was found that in 17,276 of these the particulars were inserted in the Welsh language, and had to be translated.

The enumerators were instructed to consider a house as comprising all the space within the external and party walls of a building, whether occupied by only one family, or by several families living in distinct stories or apartments; and they were also instructed, when delivering their schedules, to make a record, in a “memorandum book” supplied for the purpose, of the road or street in which every house was situated, and of the name or number of each house, and to state the number of schedules left at each house. Uninhabited houses, houses building, churches, chapels, and all other public buildings were likewise noticed in this book. With the assistance of the police, the enumerator had to make or procure returns of all persons not dwelling in houses, but sleeping in barns, sheds, caravans, or tents, or in the open air.

Special schedules were printed for the enumeration of persons in public institutions, on board vessels, or in charge of boats and barges employed in inland navigation.

Persons travelling during the night of Sunday,...