The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-23 00:00:00

THE CENSUS-NEW YORK CITY.

The new Census, besides bringing many interesting facts
to light, will tone down many big figures and dissipate
much exaggeration. The population of the City of New
York, independent of its suburbs, has been generally over
estimated. It now begins to transpire that, instead of a
million or a million and a quarter with which it had cer-
tainly been credited nearly five years ago, it will
be under 900,000. If, however, the extensions in
Long Island, Westchester County, New Jersey,
and Staten Island be included, two millions
is not an excessive estimate, and the inhabitants are prac-
tically New Yorkers. The city proper is becoming to
the American metropolis much as what is known as " The
City " is to London ; the centre of business, where men
spend the toiling hours in offices, though residing perhaps
miles away with their families. It is said that there are
in the streets down town at midday fully 150,000
people, more than at midnight. Formerly the
district from the Battery to the upper boundaries
of the Eighth and Tenth Wards and the east side of
the Seventeenth Ward was occupied by the most respect-
able and well-to-do of the citizens, but they have gradually
been expelled by the demand for space, and consequently
the high value of the ground, and by the crowding
together of people the bustle and inconvenience a
family must experience which lives in the very
centre of a national traffic. Nearly all who have
now migrated to where they can obtain more elbow and
breathing room, a move facilitated by the improved
means of communication. Nor did that advantage affect
them only, for high rents and a cheap and ready means
of locomotion induced mechanics and the poorer class to
live in the suburbs. In 1790 the white population of New
York City was 33,131 ; in 1820, 123,706 ; in 1850, 515,547
in 1860, 813,669; but in 1865 thepopulation had diminished
726,386. The belief is, however, that the census of
1860 over-estimated the population. The city in-
crease from 1840 to 1860 was 160 per cent., while the
suburban, increase was 202 per cent. In 1840 the New
York counties over which the suburbs spread contained
137,588 persons, and the New Jersey 85,271; while in
1860 the figures were 461,502 and 212,223 respectively.
About one-half the resident population is of foreign
birth, and different wards of the city are occupied
by distinct nationalities. The Germans, for instance,
gather around the Seventeenth Ward, and there are
districts given up to the Irish. In 1855 the Irish num-
bered 175,735 ; the Germans, not quite 100,000 ; British.
32,000. In 1865 the Irish had diminished to 161,334; the
Germans had increased to 109,000, and the British had
decreased to 25,0J0, The number of alien pas-
sengers landed at Castle Garden in twenty-two years
was—lrish, 1,597,805 ; Germans, 1,536,649; British, up-
wards of 600,000 ; the grand, total being 4,038,991. Of these
886,457 landed without knowing where to go, but 604,203
were bound West, and the remainder for the New Eng-
land States and Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware.
It appears that foreign characteristics remain with the
children of foreign parents born in the city, and more
especially is this the case in the haunts of vice. " The
worst rowdies and most dangerous criminals in and around
the metropolis are the children of foreign-born ances-
tors, and truth demands the statement that nine-
tenths of such rowdies and criminals are of Irish
origin." The proportion of arrests to nationality should
be 567 in every 1,000 native born, whereas the proportion
was 309 ; but the Irish, who should have had 223, really
had 506, and the German 104, instead of 147 ; all the others
requiring 63, had . really 8L The great proportion of
those entered as Americans were the children of foreign
parents, with nothing more American about them
than birth in the city ; yet the native arrests were
only 53 of their due proportion, while the Irish arrests
were 129 per cent. above their share, while the Germans
were much under theirs, and other foreigners a little over.
Summing up, the record is, for the United States,
55,000 ; for Ireland, 460,000 ; for Germany, 115,000 ; for
all others, 86,000. The almshouses give a somewhat
similar result, the share of Ireland being out of all pro-
portion to the others. These figures are from the census
of 1865, and it is believed that since then the German
inhabitants have increased in proportion to the Irish.—
Anglo-American Times.