The Sun.
London, England, 1854-07-27 00:00:00

AGES OF TIIE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND.

A. highly interesting docuthent was yesterday issued
by the Registrar-General. It is a further instalment of
the figures afforded by the census, and affords informa
tion as to the ages, occupations, and birthplaces of the
people.
The tables display the following remarkable results :
-Of the 14,422,801 people living in 1821, 6,981,068
were under 20 years of age, and 7.441,733 were 20 years
of age and upwards ; while of the 21,185, 010 living in
1851, the numbers under 20 years of age were 9,553,114,
and the numbers of the age of 20 years and upwards
were 11,626,896. .
The number of the population of the age of 20 and
upwards in 1851 exceeds the number under the age of 20
by 2,068,782.
The increase in the young population under 20 years
of age in the 30 years (1821-1851) has been 2,577,046 ;
the increase in the adult population of 20 years of age
and upwards in the same time has been 4,185,163.
The males of 20 year= of age and uowarde at the two
periods amount to 3,587,600, and to 5,610,777 ; the in-
crease in the 30 years has been, consequently, 2,023.177
men of the age of 20 years and upwards. All of these
numbers, it is evident, would Wr. be able to "go forth
to war," if the population ea masse were called to arms ;
and the quality of the population at a ter-ages differs
so much in vitality, strength, and intelligence, that it
requires still further analyeie.
The males at the soldier's age of 20 to 40 amounted
to 1,966,664 in 1821, and to 3,193,496 in 1851 ; the in-
crease in the 30 years is equivalent in number to a vast
army of more than twelve hundred thousand men
(1,226,832).
The women at this fruitful age of marriage (20 to 40)
were then 2,119,385 in number; they have increased by
1,243,073, and now amount to 3.362,458.
1 While the population under 20 years of age increased
37 per cent., the population at the second age of 20 to
40 increased 60 per cent.
At the age of riper knowledge and experience (40 to
60 years), the increase was 1,244,400 persons, or 55 per
cent. in the thirty years.
The number of persons in mature life, at the age of
60 to 80 years, increased 45 per cent. ; while the in-
crease at the extreme period of life after 80 was only 34
per cent.
If it be assumed, as it may be fairly, that the popula-
tion under the age of 10 years, and the great bulk of
the population of the age of 70 and upwards, are chiefly
sustained by the Industry of the population living in the
middle periods of life, extending from the age of 20 to
the age of 60, it will follow that in 1821 the 6,367,991 per-
sons of the two middle ages sustained 4,355,166 children
and old persons, or 68 per cent. of their own numbers ;
while in 1851 only 5,797,295 i effectives by wee (57 per
cent.) were sustained by 10,082,296 of the effective po-
pulation. Tested by these facts, the strength of the
nation has increased faster than its numbers.
The popula.tion of 1851 is so cons.ituted that if the•
century of life over which a generation may extend is
divided into five periods of 20 years, commencing at
the ages, 10. 20, 40, 60, and 80, the numbers in 1,000
males are 461, 307, 165, 62, and 5 ; while the nurntiera
in 1,000 fema.es at the same period, are 44i, 312, 168,
71, and 7. The exact proportions are shown in the
table (4), p. xvi.' • They are approximatively represented
by 6 under 20 years of age, to 4 at the wee 20, 40, 2 at
40.60, and lat the age of 60 and upwards. Toe num-
bere at the ages 20 to 60 now somewhat exceed the
numbers under the age of 20 years ; and it should be
borne in mind by those who have to deal with the whole
population, that the persons of the age 20 to 40, -but
not their possessions,-are nearly twice as numerous as
the persons of the next vicenniad (40 60), and that the
males of that ace (20 40) exceed in number the males at
all ages over 40 in the proportion of 31 to 23.
In the year 1851 the proportions at the age 20 40 in
100,000 of the population are nearly the same as in 18 t 1 ;
but since the latter years the proportions of the age 40-
60 have increased.
There are . some natural, some useful, and some
artificial divisions of human life, of which a few may be
ad,,aiitageouely noticed, since the tabular returns have
been distributed, by the method of differences, so as to
exhibit very nearly the numbers living at each of the
several years of age-
Human life is naturally enough divided into two
periwis ; the first terminates at the age of 25, which is
now the average . of marriage in England ; the second
period extends from that age to senilit e, or to the catas-
trophe of death. In the Roman 144' 25 was the age of
majority, as it is in the piece t French code for males.
The number of persons at the last census in Great
Britain under the age of 25 was 11,573,377 ; of the age
of 25 and upward5,9,611,633.
By thecommon law of England all persons under the age
of 21 are infants ; 21 is the age of majority ; and in the
following years of age half of the marriages in England
are now contracted. The number of minors in Great
Britain at the last census was 9,985,133 ; the number of
21 years of age and upwards was
butct,
consent
slcea7l. eitisnooaftt
t hle4i, females
legally emgumaatrlteirirsiya
guardians,
until
lA,the age
maylal
tg,lll9oo9nfE, consent
English
i sto marry,
without
h lav the
re-
gards 14 as the age at which a person is competent to
distinguish right and wrong ; under 7, children are ir-
responsible ; between the ages of 7 and 14 they are in
some cases responsible. Tee number of persons of the
age of 14 and upwards was 14,167,871 ; of 14 and under
21, the number was 2,967,994; of 7 and under 14, the
number was 3,260,138.
Physioiogists divide human life into four periods, the
embryonic, immature, reproductive, and sterile ages :
the first terminating at birth ; the second at puberty,
which is achieved at 15 ; the third at 45, after which
few mothers have children ; and the last at 100 and up-
wards. The numbers in Great Britain at the three latter
periods are, males under 15, 3,754,936 ; of 15 and under
45, 4,811,172; of 45 arid upwards, 1,851,23.5. The
number of females under 15 was 3,703,144 ; of 15 and
under 45, 4,954,299; of 45 an,' upwards, 2,030,224.
Individual life exists on such conditions that it may
at any moment cease ; and the vital tenure varies not
only with every change of external circumstances, but by
natural laws at every year of age. It is most insecure in
infancy and old age. At the age of puberty-before the
period when the growth of the body is most rapiil-be-
fore the age of itsgreat strength-before the age of greatest
intellectual power, it is leest assailable by death. The .
chance of living through a given year increases from birth
to the age of 14 or 15 ; it decreases to the age of 55-8 at
a slightly acceleiatieg rate ; after which the vit dity ile-
clines at a much more rapid rate. The numbers living
at the ages 15-55, extending to the extreme limits of
the reproductive age, where the vitality wears away
slowly, is 5,664,781 males, and 5,903,111 females. The
numbers living of the ages after 55 aro 997,626 males,
and 1,161,412 females.
Seven, which numbered the notes of music, the metals,
and the planets, for the Greek philosophers, was sup-
posed by them to measure tohfencriiptipe,a)clrianttees:_valvisiolifehuman
avecenonangte,st"erminated at the yearn seven,
fourteen,h: ongee
twenty-eight, thirty-five, forty-two, fifty-six,
or moreTigerhet,extthenirdt;ltivbey, Sfoorltoyn. t tr,o, 0 , thecn,tte;
severity,ci iofer d i ac-
cording
it,nevtelieayy,eoarrsthswevieans,t fourteen
rwt:ei
cob,
equal septennaries etni:l.rieneg,
nether philoSopher added the two
-four years, the fulness of life-be-
i:: twenty-on
periodsls exfitl
tiulydp-tesetdi
oxt:wesaeii
eighty-four
Littliyytya--
sene,s.iotto
ifrteh life,ee ands.ep t
populationehua nvhaear
vyeevybi edeaeerrnsi t l
yac
yond which lie would no more reckon than would the
lorisfen,ua)crgdi coincide 1
jwi
ei
itih t
1 s striking*
n u in.
charioteer the ground that he ran beyond the goal.
baepenrodscsiiiome of our popular divisions suggested te il
given. o u rvl:reraol
divided life very naturally into five equal ages, termi-
nating at the close, of the years 15, 30, 45, 60, 75 or
more, and proposed to call males at the five respective
English divisions of life are expressed . in
the language
ages, pueri, adolescentes, juvenes, seniorsB, seizes.
The poptil arb,
several characteristic words, such as
babe, suckling, infant, child, boy, girl, lad, lass, youth,
'Maiden, and
young, neeldle-aged old m
,-man, woan.
These terms are not
used with so much precision as they
might easily acquire.; and some of them, derived from
different sources, are used synonymously, while the latter
terms often include the period
which the earlier words
especially deeignate. But (using a little force to make
them express consecutive :lees) it may be said that Great
Britain in 1851 contained babes and sucklings (under 1
year). 578,743; i
-"fahts (1-5 years), 2,166,456 ; children
(5-10 years) 2,456,066 ; boys (10-15 years), 1,141,933 ;
girls (10 15 years), 1,114,882 ; youths (15.20 year-),
1,051,630 ; maideils (15.20 years), 1,048,464 ; young
men (20-30 years), 1,830,588 ; young women (20.30
years), 1,930,996 ; risen of middle-age (30-50 years),
2,376,904; women of iniddle-age (30-50 years), 2,482,382.
Before proceeding to consider the next age a pro-
blem presents itself for solution. What. is the oldest
age that is now attained ?' What is the measure of the
complete orbitof -9
The • nsus furnishes some
!mimeo, life : census
aid towards the prosecution of this inquiry, which is cer-
tainly of no inconsiderable interest or importance. In
great Britain more than half a million of the inhabi-
tants in
,--6,030) have passed the barrier of ~ threescore
years and ten ." more than 129,000 have passed the
Psalmist's limit'
of " fourscore years," and 100,000 the
years which the laSt of Plato's climacteric square numbers
expressed (9 times9,sBl) ; nearly 10 thousand(9,B47)have
years or more a band,
lived 90 of 2 038 aged pilgrims
;
have been wandering 95 years and more on the unended
journey; and 319 say that they have witnessed more than
a hundred revolutions of the seasons.
Many instances are cited of men living in the ancient
world more than a hundred years; and Lord Bacon, in his
" History of Life add Death," quotes as a fact unques-
tioned that a few years before, he wrote, a Morris dance
was Performed at Herefordshire, at the May games, by
eight
me; whose Ewes in the aggregate amounted to
eight hundredyears.'No populous village in England was
then without a man or woman of four score years old.
In the. seventeenth century, some time after Bacon
wrote, two Eliglishmen are reported to have died at
ages greater than almost any of those which have been
attained in other nations. According to documents
Which are printed in the Philosophical Transactions of
the Royal Society. Thomas Parr rived 152 years and 9
months, Henry Jenkins, 169 years. Tne evidence in
these extraordinary instances is, however, by no means
conclusive, as it evidently rests chiefly on uncertain
tradition, and on the' very fallible inernorieB of illiterate
ofd men ; for there is no mention of documentary evi-
dence in Parr's case, and the births date back to a pe-
riod before the parish registers were instituted by
Cromwell (1538.) .
At the last census 111 men and 208 women have
been returned of ages ranging from 100 to 119 years ;
and to the scientific inquirer in the districts where
these old people reside, an opportunity is afforded of
investigating and setting at rest a problem of much
greater interest than some of the curious questions
that engage the attention of learned societies. Two-
thirds of the centenarians are women. Several of
them in England are natives of parishes in Ireland or
Scotlnald veJ2ere no efficient 13yiltOZI of regi6tratiog exists,
... ___ •