ditable deficiency as regards registration. In all divisions of the Empire the information sought was rendered with an intelligent willingness which proved that the ancient prejudices, anile and religious, against David's sin of numbering the people have altogether disappeared. The press enforced the national uses of the inquiry with an intelligence which raised a direct interest in the public mind; the pulpit lent its aid, and the general spread of education had removed many personal disqualifications--one of which, an unwillingness to betray want of skill in writing and spelling, had heretofore been a great obstacle. Moreover, there exist under our Government no counteracting motives-there is no dread that the returns can be used for military conscription, nor for purposes of taxation, nor with any other object than the public good. It may then be asserted that the British Census of 1861, obtained with the popular concurrence, is superior both in truthfulness and accuracy to those obtained by the most despotic and centralized Govern

ments.

It will be seen by reference to the Tables that the total population of the British Islands is 29,334,788. As the numbers in 1851 were 27,511,926, there has been an actual increase of near two millions, after a vast emigration of the same amount has been deducted. It is matter of speculation what, if the emigrants had stayed at home, the result as regards our numbers would have been; on the one side is to be taken the natural increase by births, on the other the detracting effects of the pressure of an augmented population; but this is a certain re

sult of these figures, that since 1851 the actual increase by births of the inhabitants of these islands was upwards of 4,000,000. This considerable addition to our numbers is due solely to the wonderful progress of England and Wales, whose population has risen in the last decade from 17,927,609 to 20,061,725, an increase of 2,134,116. Scotland also has advanced in the same period by 172,587 persons, or from 2,888,742 to 3,061,329. As a subtraction from this evidence of increase and well-being, Ireland exhibits the great decrease of 787,842, her population having fallen from 6,552,385 to 5,764,543. Taking the increase of England and Scotland, and deducting the decrease in Ireland, the general result is that, from 1851 to 1861, there has been an actual increase of 1,609,900 in the population of the United Kingdon. In like manner the rate of increase per cent. in England for the decennial period is 12 per cent., but by the decrease in Ireland the net increase of the United Kingdom is reduced to 6 per cent.

The vital statistics of England are so much more complete than those of Scotland and Ireland, that it is from her returns only that any safe comparisons can be drawn. The first Census in 1801 ascertained the population of England and Wales to number 9,156,171. These numbers have undergone a progressive increase in every decennial period; but while the figures representing the addition at each return are progressively of higher value, the centesimal proportion of increase

The discrepancies in these figures

arise from the deductions being made from

uncorrected returns.

on the four returns since 1821 has uniformly diminished. Thus in the period between 1801 and 1811 the addition to the population existing at the former date was 1,298,358 or 14 per cent.; between 1811 and 1821, 1,718,135 or 16 per cent. This is the greatest ratio of increase in this country recorded. The return of peace and the application of capital and skill to the purposes of commerce, and the prosperity thereon consequent, no doubt gave a great stimulus to marriages and births; as emigration was undoubtedly the chief cause of the subsequent relative decline. For in 1831, though the addition to the population was larger than in 1821, being 1,879,322, the ratio of increase had fallen to 15 per cent.; in 1841, to 14 per cent., or 1,983,212 persons; in 1851 to 13 per cent., or 2,018,972 persons; and in 1861 12 per cent., or 2,169,576 persons. Or in the first 30 years of this century the rate of increase was 53 per cent., and in the second 30 years 44 per cent.; but taking the whole 60 years the increase was not less than 121 per cent. ; or in other words the population of 1801 had doubled itself in the year 1853; and the 9,000,000 of the first Census had added to themselves 11,000,000 of new people in the last.

The addition to population as represented in figures, since 1851, has not been equally distributed. The increase has been in the cities and great seats of manufacturing and mining industry; but there has been a decrease in the agricultural districts. There has probably been no distributive diminution in births; the variations arise from two causes, the emigration

from the rural districts into the wealthier manufacturing districts, and by the emigration to foreign lands being chiefly from the for

mer.

In 631 registrars' districts, 248 have decreased in population, The great metropolis has received during this period an addition to its myriads of 440,798 or 19 per cent., nor can the epithet "overgrown" be applied to it with any propriety, since its growth has been the result of natural causes, which seem to be still active; nor can it be said why it should stop at 2,803,034, more than why it ought to have stayed its increase at the limit of half a million as in the reign of Charles the Second.

In

The relative proportions of the sexes is one of the most singular problems of vital statistics. all three divisions of the empire more males are born than females. This preponderance of the sturdier sex holds good, in England, up to the age of 17, when the proportions turn the other way, and thereafter there are more women than men in the proportion of 106 to 100, the total excess of the gentler kind amounting to the large number of 544,021. Generally speaking, this superabundance is distributed over the kingdom; but in Derbyshire, Durham, Stafford and Glamorgan, the men exceed the women; and the reason is obvious these are great mining and iron founding districts, in which the stalwart labour of men is required, who are, therefore, drawn thither from other localities. In Scotland the proportion of females to males is still greater than in England, being as 1115 to 100; in Ireland it is as 105 to 100.

In the whole United Kingdom the surplus of females is 573,520. This great difference is no doubt

referable in a great degree to emigration; but there would seem to be some constant causes at work to establish this disproportion as a law, since it is known that the number of living females exceeded the number of living males in times when emigration had not attained any operative proportions.

The ratio of increase in Scotland is and has long been less than that of England. The physical condition of the country will in some degree account for this, but it is chiefly due to emigration-the poor but hardy and intelligent Scots seek, in a continuous outflow, the rewards of industry in every other clime under the sun. The disproportion of the sexes has been already referred to; the excess of females is in numbers 167,299, and this is equally remarkable both in the urban and rural districts. One consequence has been a low marriage ratio; another, a large ratio of illegitimate children; a third, not sufficiently noticed as a consequence, is that the actual increase of the population is small, being but 6 per cent. (notwithstanding a very large Irish immigration), whereas in England it is 12 per cent. The increase, small as it is, is confined to the manufacturing and commercial districts; in these there is a congestion of the population; while in 12 out of the 33 Scotch counties the inhabitants have not only failed to increase by excess of births over deaths, but have diminished to the extent of 31,825; Argyll, Inverness, and Perth, mountainous districts, lose 8000, 9000, and 5000, of their people.

Ireland presents features of very marked interest, which have

not yet been sufficiently investi gated. Her population, which in 1841 was returned at 8,175,124, was reduced by famine and emigration in 1851 to 6,552,385; and in 1861 was found to be still further diminished to 5,764,543, or by the loss of 787,842 persons; 12 per cent. This great reduction is, however, not due to the causes which destroyed the population in the famine period; on the contrary the figures would indicate a great increase in prosperity, and in consequence of the reproductive powers of the community; for had the numbers of births merely balanced the number of deaths, the population would have been reduced by emigration by 1,230,000, that being the number of the natives of Ireland who emigrated to foreign countries in the interval between 1851 and 1861. The progress of Ireland in material well-being is evidenced by the returns relative to the dwellings of the people; for although the inhabited houses have decreased 52,990, the rate of decrease is but 5 per cent., while that of the population is 12 per cent.; and further, the number of houses building shows an increase of 1179, or more than 50 per cent. over 1851. When it is considered that the cabins cleared away were hovels unfit for any human being, that the dwellings now building are of a very superior character, and that many of the continuing cottages have been repaired with a view to decency and comfort, this short return will yield very satisfactory evidence of the great improvement which is daily making in the comfort and prosperity of Ireland. One much controverted subject this Census has put finally

at rest-the relative numbers of the Protestants and Roman Catholics. It is now definitively ascertained that of the 5,792,055 inhabitants of Ireland, the Roman Catholics are 4,512,000 or 78 per cent.; the numbers of the Established Church 682,000 or 12 per cent.; and the Protestant Dissenters 586,563 or 10 per cent.; all other denominations only 8414. In Leinster, Munster, and Connaught the superiority of Roman Catholics is immense; and they have the majority even in Protestant Ulster.

The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man call for little remark. They have remained nearly in statu quo.

THE FRENCH CENSUS. With the Population Returns of the United Kingdom and the United States, in the Appendix to this CHRONICLE, will be found an extract from the Report of the Minister of the Interior on the population of the French Empire. As no minute details are given, most of those elements of interior comparison which the English tables afford are wanting: but this document presents some very remarkable features, to which attention may be briefly called. Thus while the United States have been increasing their inhabitants by the means of immigration and abundance at a rate to which history offers no approach, and the United Kingdom, in spite of emigration and famine, has doubled her strength in little more than half a century, France, with great material prosperity, and with an emigration so slight as to affect the returns but little, has remained almost stationary. It must be noted that the census of France is taken every five years, not decennially.

The French Empire, with the limits which it maintained under the Restoration, contained in 1856, 86 departments, having a population of 36,039,364. In 1862 the same departments contained 36,713,166 persons; an increase of no more than 673,802, or 1.86 per cent. in five years. Within that period, however, the French Empire has had an abnormal addition to its subjects of 669,059, by its annexation of Savoy and Nice, which are formed into three new departments. With this increase and addition the population of the French Empire is now 37,382,285. The rated increase of 1.86 per cent. is an improvement on the two previous quinquennial periods, which gave for 1846-51 an increase of 1.08 per cent., and for 1851-56 a rate below even that.

THE CENSUS OF THE UNITED STATES. The United States ascertain their progress in population, as we do in England, at periods of ten years, but they have fixed upon the periodic decade for the process. The uncorrected Returns for the year 1860 will be found in the Appendix to this Chronicle. They present a picture of rapid increase of population without a parallel in the history of the world; and also offer a remarkable evidence of internal migrations. The tabulated Returns which show the population of the several States, white and coloured, are of singular interest at this moment, when the Secession has broken up the Union into two contending powers. It is to be hoped that the civil war will not prevent the acquisition of accurate returns of this which may possibly be the last Population Return of the United

66

12. MYSTERIOUS MURDER AND SUICIDE. A singular case, probably of murder and suicide, has occurred at Carlisle. On the morning of the 12 inst. a young man, named William Horsley, 23 years of age, was found lying dead upon a settle," or seat, in the kitchen of a small inn called the Packhorse, in Water Street, kept by Jane Davidson, about 40 or 50 years of age, whose husband is an agricultural labourer. Horsley had been married to a daughter of Jane Davidson, but his wife had been dead about 18 months. He used frequently to go to the Packhorse in the evening, and often stayed there all night, sleeping upon the settle in the kitchen. It is but too certain that Davidson had become enamoured of her son-in-law, and this passion was accompanied by a fit of jealousy, under the influence of which she employed a female neighbour named Short to watch him. Short reported that Horsley was paying attentions to a young woman. At the inquest Short made some extraordinary revelations. She said that the woman Davidson had told her that she had been consulting a fortune-teller, who had said that her husband would soon die, and she would be married again. She asked Short to go to a druggist for her, and get her some "dragon's blood," which was to be burnt in the fire as a charm to prevent her son-in-law from keeping company with her rival. The "dragon's blood" was procured on Wednesday. On Thursday night the deceased Horsley went to the Packhorse Inn and was left in the kitchen with his mother-in-law and lover, Mrs. Davidson, when

No noise was heard during the night except that an inmate heard Mrs. Davidson go to her bed-room about midnight. Next morning before going out to his work at six o'clock, this person saw the deceased lying on the "settle," but thinking he was asleep, as he had seen him many times before, he did not notice that anything was the matter. On his return to breakfast at eight o'clock, however, he found that he was dead. He had bled at the nose considerably, and much blood was on the floor; his head was on the pillow, and he was partly covered with a sheet. His necktie was drawn tight round his neck by a oncecrossed knot, and on his throat was a blue mark, and a mark from the tightness of his shirt collar. Meanwhile Mrs. Davidson was found to be very ill. She had had frequent vomitings during the night, and these continued at intervals during Friday until the afternoon, when she died while the jury were in the house viewing the body of her son-in-law. was sufficiently evident from the appearance on the corpse of Horsley that he had been strangled; but no poison was found in his stomach. But when the body of the woman was examined there was a considerable quantity of arsenic. A dress and apron which the woman had worn on the day preceding Horsley's death were produced. They were both stained with blood. From various circumstances, the cause of Horsley's death was uncertain

It

for, notwithstanding these suspicious circumstances, it was not impossible that the strangulation might have been accidental. It seemed as though he had fallen