The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-01 00:00:00

CENSUS OF OCCUPATION,

On the eve of the meeting of Parliament we pub-
lished a statement of the population of the kingdom
and its distribution at the time of the last census,
We propose now to give an account of the occupa-
tions of the people. The general classification of the
population enumerated in England and Wales at
the census of 1851 and that of 1861 is as follows :-
1851. 1861.
1. Professional class .. 376,434 .. 481,957
2. Domestic „ .. 10,010,343 .. 11,426,720
3. Commercial ~ • . 528,599 .. 623,710
4. Agricultural ~ .. 2,084,153 .. 2,010,454
5. Industrial ~ .. 4,143,293 .. 4,828,399
6. Indefinite II 784,787 .. 695,984

17,927,609 20,066,224
The professional class is subdivided into three
orders or sub-classes. The first is the Governmental,

beginning with her Majesty the Queen, and reach-
ing down to the police, the letter carriers, and the
dockyard labourers; for the subordinates always in
the census returns go to the rrincipals. The de-
partment of the Post Office increased its numbers
from 8,881 in 1851 to 14,131 in 1861, the police from
16,392 to 21,938, and the whole Governm3ntal body
advanced from 66,724 to 87,350. The second sub
class, the military, increased from 85,818 to 131,944.
This does not include the Volunteers; volunteering
was not their principal occupation. The third
subclass—the learned, literary, and artistic pro-
fessions—increased from 204,093 in 1851 to 262,663
in 1861. The clergy were returned at 17,320 in
1851 and 19,195 in 1861; Protestant Ministers, 6,405
and 7,840 ; Roman Catholic priests, 966 and 1,216.
Barristers advanced from 2,816 to 3,071, but the
number of attorneys was stationary. The physicians
increased from 1,771 to 2,385, but the surgeons and
apothecaries decreased in number, the profession
answering to the preference of the patient for the
higher title. Schoolmasters, schoolmistresses, and
teachers increased from 94,878 in 1851 to 110,364

in 1861; this lest number includes 24,770 gover-
nesses. Authors aad literary persons are gated at
3,395 men and 185 women in 1861.
The progress of the taste for music is seen in the
increase of musicians and musicmasters from 11,105
in 1851 to 15,021 in 1861. Photographers were
but 45 in 1851, but in 1861 had become 2,534. Civil

engineering is also a profession rapidly increasing;
its members at the two dates were 2,577 and 3,329
Classification is difficult with the literary and ar•
tistic class. An author may also be a clergyman

barrister, physician. It is necessary also to include
persons ministering in the lowest fields of public
amusements. Conjurors, performers at shows, bal-
lad singers, pugilists (18 in number)—they here got
into worshipful company ; and we have to close the

list of the " professional class" with the last minis

ter of the law, who is introduced with such
honours as may be—" The ancient office of execu-
tioner has one representative left in England."
The domestic class comes next. It comprises
women not in business, children, servants, and with
these are placed innkeepers and other persons en-
gaged in providing board and lodging. The whole
class constitutes more than half the population of
England. But besides the 6,793,805 females here
returned as of no occupation, mothers, housewives,
daughters of all ages, there are no less than

3,436,749 women returned in other classes as
engaged in business, or assisting in it : proof
enough that women are not idle. The most
remarkable thing, however, is the large increase
in the number of children returned as scholars,
either at school or at home. In 1851 they wsre
2,297,232 ; in 1861, 3,150,043, of whom 1,552,738
are boys and 1,397,310 girls. The number of
scholars under five years of age doubled in
the ten years. Of children between five and ten 69
in every 100 boys (61 in 1851) and 66 in every 100
girls (56 in 1851) are returned as scholars-that is,
"daily attending school or receiving regular tuition
at home." Between 10 and 15, 37 in every 100 boys
are in recognised occupations, and 20 in every 100
giria, but the proportion who are still scholars at this
age rose from 39 in 100 of the boys in 1851 to 15 in
1861, and from 41 girls in 100 to 32. It. high propor-
tioti-one-fourth-of girls of 15-20 are returned as at
home and in no definite occupation. There were in
1331 4,412,2-19 children in England between 5 and
15,and it is gratifying to learn that 2,616,731 of them
were scholars receiving instruction, 638,274 were
occupied in various ways. Unfortunately, 1,194,247
were at home, apparently deriving no instruction
from any of the schools. OE the residue of the per-
sons constituting class 2 the most noticeable circum-
stance is that 932,783-nearly a million-female
domestic servants were enumerated in England and
Wales in 1861. It tells of increased comfort and
prosperity to real that there are 400,000 more fe-
male servants in England than there were in 1831.
Class 3 i 3 the commercial class-mercantile men,
general dealers, and persons engaged in the carrying
business. Here are the 56,000 commercial clerks,
who in 1851 were not 38,600 ; and the commercial
travellers increased from 8,000 to nearly 11,000.
Railway servants and clerks, who were set down as
25,236 in 1851, were 53,699 in 1861. The telegraphic
service employed 261 in 1851, and 2,612 in 1861, of
whom 213 were females. There were in 1861 27,759
errand boys under 15. The number of marine-store
dealers doubled in the 10 years.
We come now to "the great central productive
class of the country"-the agricultural, in which
(including woodmen, gardeners, and persons en-
gaged about animals) 2,010,454 persons are directly
employed, 1,631,652 males and 378,802 females,
This number is less by nearly 74,000 than in 1851.
The wives and grown-up members of the families of
farmers residing on the farm are counted, on the
assumption that they more or less help in the work
of the farm, and these are represented as having
decreased from 381,469 to 339,916. Considering
that the number of farmers themselves, 249,735, is
almost precisely the same as in 1851, this return is
rather puzzling. Bat there is another deficiency
still larger. Although the outdoor agricultural
labourers, 958,265 in 1861, are rather more numerous
than in 1851, the indoor farm servants aro repre-
sented as having declined from 288,272 in 1851 to
204,962 in 1861. In Essex the men (indoor farm
servants) are stated to have decreased from 1,530 in
1851 to 587 in 1861, and the females from 2,343
to 525; in Suffolk, the men from 2,845 to 959,
and the females from 3,640 to 1,215. Ia Lincoln-
shire the indoor female farm servants are re-
turned as increased from 769 to 3,417, and in Sussex
has decreased from 1,760 to 313. The report for 1861
allows that some uncertainty prevails as to whether
the farmers returned all their indoor farm servants,
and we can hardly think that the returns of 1851
and 1861 can possibly have been made on the same
principle. Taking the most purely agricultural
Part of the population-the males only, being far-
mers and graziers, agricultural labourers and shep-
herds, indoor farm servants and bailiffs-the num-
bers are 1,317,387 in 1851, and 1,340,916 in 1861 ;
and that is on the statement that the indoor farm
servants, the men, ware 30,000 fewer than in 1851.
With
i regard to agricultural statistics, the informa-
tion n the returns has not been abstracted for all
England, but only for 10 agricultural counties,
and it would appear from these that the size of
farms has increased in the last 10 years. The farms
of less than 100 acres declined from 31,583 to 26,667,
so that 4,016 were amalgamated to form other
farms of larger acreage.
is the industrial, competelass
Class 5 no less than
3,262,510 males and 1,565,889 females, and includ-
ing more tanlii,ioso=Ocl
sosug includes eoptleh the
wndoerik•e2rOs
a
years of age: T
in materials of all deiscriptions. Toe greatest increase
of artisans since 1851 will be found to be
in trades
to which machinery has not yet been successfully
trades connected with building.
The such as the
The numbers returned under the head of o Cotton
Manufacture" were 371,777 in 1851, and 456,646 in
1861 ; woollen cloth man tafaciure,
122,256 iu 1851,
and 130,034 in 1861. Navvies and railway labourers
increased from 34,018 to 43,008; engine and mciehine
makers, from 42,597 to 60,862 ; shipbuilders and
shipwrights, from 21,100 to 31,291; printers, from
22,399 to 30,390; lithographers, from 1,393 to 2,912.
The number of persons employed in paper-making
was 10,809 in 1851, and in 1831 13,357, of whom
7,746 were men and 5,611 women. The workers in
minerals exceed a million in number. The coal,
iron, copper, tin, and lead shiners increased from
254,159 in 1851 to 317,832 in 1861 ; but thi, of