The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-20 00:00:00

THE CENSUS OF 1851.

(From the Times. )
In delineating the other day some of the general con-
clusions established by the last census, we stated that
the ascertained population of Great Britain amounted to
21,121,967 souls. The simple fact is the basis of all the
subsequent calculations,—the foundation on which three
folios of statistical deductions have been already con-
structed, and on which so vast a pile has yet to be reared.
The reader will wonder, perhaps, how such ordinary-
looking figures can possess such prodigious ductility, and
we purpose to give some satisfaction to so natural a
curiosity.

In the first place, these 21 millions of people are
" subdivided into males and females," and the compilers of
the report appear to feel some little chagrin at their in-
ability to carry this elementary distinction any further.
Luckily, however, the necessities and vicissitudes of hu-
man life furnish ample scope for classifications of another
kind. The population is first to be arranged according to
age, in what are ailed " quinquennial sections": that is, sec-
tions advancing by periods of five years eiph, so that the
number of persons respectively aged 90, 75, 80, 75, 70,
65, 60, &c., down to 5, and " children in arms," will be
readily ascertainable. After dealing with the mass of
matter in this way, the Registrar-General and his as-
sistants again take it up and knead it afresh into new
subdivisions, showing how many people are " bachelors,
spinsters, husbands, wives, widowers, or widows." A
third time still the lump is to be re-distributed, and we
shall all appear grouped according to the countries or
counties in which we were born and the places in which
we reside. Finally. we are all to be classed, for the
fourth experiment, by our professions or occupations,
from princes and peers down to workers in all the vari-
ous products of the animal, vegetable, and mineral king-
dom. We use the future tense in these observations,
because the work has yet to be performed. The vo-
lumes already issued are confined to the mere " numbers
of the inhabitants," male and female, in the various
districts of the country, but these numbers are given
for every census since that of 1801 inclusively, and
there are some marginal notes of great interest, convey-
ing explanations of any marked increase or decrease of
population at any particular spot. We observe, for in-
stance, occasional notice taken of the number of inmates
—male and female—of different convents at certain
periods. If this information could be given accurately
for the present period it might just now be of material
service.

Omitting minor classifications, we may remark that
the gross numbers of the population were contributed
from the chief divisions of Great Britain as follows
England, 16,921,881 ; Wales, 1,005,721 ; Scotland,
2,888,742 ; and "the Isles," 143,126 ; in addition to
which it was computed that 162,490 were at sea or
or serving abroad in the army. With this bare state-
ment, however, the Registrars are by no meana con-
tent, and they evince a most laudable desire to impress
the public with some realisation of the facts
beyond what is usually conveyed by an array of
figures. For this purpose they first recommend
the reader to take a certain imaginary unit of
reckoning, such as " a file of ten, persons." From this,
they say, "which the eye takes in at one view, the
mind readily conceives ten such groups, or a hundred ;
and again ascending to ten hundred or a thousand, to
ten thousand or a myriad, to ten myriads or a hundred
thousand, and to ten hundred thousand or a million,
arrives at a conception of the twenty-one millions of
people which Great Britain contained within its shores
on the night of March 30, 1851." Lest even this illus-
tration should fail of its purpose, another is happily bor-
rowed from recollections familiar to all. " The building
of the Great Exhibition," says the report, " enclosed 18
acres, and 50,000 or 60,000 persons often entered it
daily ; on the 9th of October 93,224 persons filled its
floor and galleries, and could almost be surveyed by
the eye at one time. Of 100,000 persons, therefore,
a general notion can be formed by all those who
witnessed this spectacle at the Crystal Palace ;
it is a number greater than was ever at one time
in a building covering 18 acres, but somewhat less
than the greatest number (109,915) that ever entered it
on one day, October 7. The population, then, of Great
Britain, including men, women, and children, exceeds
211 hundred thousands, and, at the rate M 100,000 a-
day, could have passed through the building in 211
days." In 1801 the population could have passed
through a similar building in 109 days ; so that 102 days
of such a living stream would actually be necessary to
represent the increase of the British people during the
present century.
A good idea will be formed of the intricacies into
which the apparently simple business of enumeration
was found to slide by observing how the absentees were
brought into the general reckoning. It was desired to
ascertain the numbers of the whole population, but a
certain portion of the population was absent, and
could not, therefore, be counted. Now, the claQses
likely to furnish the bulk of the absentees are comprised
in the military, naval, and merchant services. The
total numbers of the two former, including ordnance-
corps and marines, were, on the night of the census,
210,474 ; of the merchant seamen, on board ship,
in ports, or at sea, 124,744. Computations and esti-
mates showed that of this total of 335,218 some
225,916, or about two-thirds would probably be absent
from the British shores on the 30th of March ; but there
then arose another question. The reckoning in hand
was concerned with the population of Great Britain only,
whereas, of these absentees, many might belong to Ire-
land, to the British colonies, or to foreign countries.
Deductions were therefore required on all these heads,
and by this process only was it ultiniately inferred, as we
have stated above, that the absentees of strictly British
extraction might be calculated at 162,490. It deserves
notice that at the census of 1811 the " army, militia,
navy, and merchant service of the United Kingdom"
were set at 640,500, and that in these, principally among
the merchant seamen, nearly 100,000 foreigners were
thought to be included.
Another interesting calculation was that of the
particular numbers of British subjects in the several
foreign states. On this point returns were procured,
showing that there were (males and females to-
gether) in Greece 1,068, in Russia 2,783, in the Sar-
dinian States 1,069, in European Turkey 611, the Two
Sicilies 1,414, China 649, Persia 33, Alexandria 155,
Cairo 85, Tripoli 23, Belgium 3,828, France 20,357,
Saxony 321, Asiatic Turkey 624, Mexico 755. From
other countries no returns were received. A more de-
tailed description of these absentees would probably
furnish some curious information. The 1,414 residents
or sojourners in the Neapolitan kingdom are due, per-
haps, in no small degree to its climate and attractions,
while those in Russia might be attributed more exclu-
sively to its mercantile establishments. China, we sur-
mise, is supplied with its British element by missionaries
and factors, but Sardinia, we believe, has recently
given employment rather largely to engineers and
skilled workmen. France, it will be seen, gives a re-
treat to a very large body of our countrymen, who are
probably, however, confined to two or three of its
towns, and perhaps Paris shelters half the whole num-
ber. Altogether the gross total of these absentees was
33,755, and they were not enumerated, it seems, in the
population returns. On the other hand, we included a
respectable number of foreign subjects resident in Great
Britain, so that the account was made square.
It perhaps never occurred to the reader to suppose
that the selection of March 30 for the day of national
reckoning was due to any deep consideration, yet such
was the fact. The population of the country is liable to
" displacements " from a multitude of causes, including
"business, fairs, festivals, sessions, assizes, fashion,
watering-places, railways, and great works of every
kind ;" and it was considered, upon the whole, that the
least number of these causes would be in operation—or,
in other words, that the greatest number of people would
be in their own homes, on the day in question. On the
subject of displacements the Great Exhibition is again
appealed to in the report, as producing "a greater and
more general movement of the population than has ever
before been witnessed in the times of which there have
been authentic records." The number of visits to the
building exceeded 6,000,000. ,Of course, many of these
were repetitions ; but it is estimated " from returns"
that there were full 2,000,000 of visitors. This is cer-
tainly a striking conclusion, though less so than one in-
cidentally mentioned in the report, that in the year 1845
—that is to say, in the middle of this 19th century—a
million and a half of the people of the Continent visited,
in pilgrimage, the Holy Coat at Treves !

A KING'S NOTION OF SABBATH OBSERVANCE.—For
more than half a century (says a Berlin correspondent)
open-air concerts have been given on Sunday mornings
during the summer season, and have been much fre-
quented by the common people. The Government
has been memorialised by persons who see in these
recreations a violation of the Lord's Day. The Zeit
reminds us that similar addresses were sent to the
late King Frederick William the Third, who replied
in the following letter, which is given in his life by
Bishop Eylertz :—" It is no matter," says the king,
" whether these concerts take place in the morn-
ing or in the evening ; every man enjoying health
must have his religious sentiments awakened by hearing
good music in the open air, under a bright sky, and sur-
rounded by trees. Many representations have been
made to me: against these concerts, but they have not
convinced me. It is the same with the numerous books
that are written against the theatre. A little while ago,
a poor man, living at Elberfeld wrote me a letter,
entreating me by the love of God, and as I was a
Christian, to go no more to the play, to avoid injury
to my soul. This good man bad the best of inten-
tions. I gave the letter to Wizleben, and told him
he must answer it kindly in my name. Men, in general,
are terribly narrow, and Berlin is not a village."
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