The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-17 00:00:00

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, JULY 16.
The abstracts of the Census of Ireland for 1861
were issued to the press here yesterday evening.
The total population of Ireland on the 7th of
April was 5,764,543, less by 787,842 than it was in
1851, which is a decrease of 12.02 per cent. on the
last decennial period. On the previous decade there
was a decrease of 19 85 per cent. The diminution
has been greatest in Munster, where it is 18 per cent.,
and least in Ulster, where it is only 5 per cent. The
Commissioners ascribe the decrease to emigration,
as there has been no other powerful cause in °pet a.
tion, such as famine, pestilence, or war. From the
Report of the Emigration Commissioners it appears
that 1,230,986 emigrants left Ireland during the
last ten years ; and from the returns obtained by
the Registrar-General of Ireland, it is found that
of these 1,174,179 were set down as " permanent
emigrants." We have, unfortunately, no registra-
tion of births and deaths, and we cannot tell what
efforts nature has made to fill the void created by

the famine.
The portion of the returns expected with most
anxiety is that which relates to the religious deno
minations, of which we have had no return since
1834. In obtaining these returns the enumerators
met every facility from the clergy and people, and
as the Commissioners have had only 15 complaints
about them, they infer that they are nearly correct.
The following are the results :—Roman Catholics,
4,490,583 ; members of the Established Church,
678,661 ; Presbyterians, 598,992 ; all other persua-
sions, 8,414 ; Jews, 322. The total number of Pro-
testants in Ireland is 1,273,960, giving the Roman
Catholics a majority of 3,216,635, or about 34 Ro-
man Catholics to one Protestant. In Ulster the
proportions are —Established Church, 390,130 ;
Presbyterians, 511,371; Roman Catholics, 963,687.
The Morning News is almost in hysterics of joy
about these figures, pointing in triumph to the
majority of Roman Catholics in the old strongholds
of Protestantism. For instance, in " Protestant
Uanldsteinr"Dtheerrreyios
fa3R,4olmsa. nlnCa=liilTitriati:lifgla6nt62:
and Bandon they have also got a majority.
When the special census was taken in 1834, with
the object of ascertaining the religious persuasion
of the people, it was found that out of a popula-
tion of 7,954,760 there were—Roman Catholics,
6,436,060 ; members of the Established Church,
including Methodists, 853,160; Presbyterians,
643,658 ; other Dissenters, 21,882. The present
return gives the Methodists separately, as num-
bering 44,532. If we add this number to the
members of the Established Church in the
Census of 1861, we shall have 723,193. Comparing
these figures with the returns of 1834 we obtain
the following results :—During the generation that
has passed since that census the population of
Ireland has diminished by 2,190,217 • the Roman
Catholic population by 1,945,477 ; the Church of
England population (including the Methodists) by
129,967, the Presbyterians by 114,666. The other
Protestant denominations have been diminished
about one-half.
The following are the returns from the principal
cities and towns, showing the increase or decrease,
as compared with the returns of the last census in
1851:
Dublin (Municipal) 249,733 .. Decrease .. 8,636
„ (Suburbs) 46,231 } Increase 5,511
„ (County) 106,058
Belfast
Cork
Waterford
Limerick
Kilkenny 14,081 .. Decrease .. 5,894
Galway . 16,786 .. Decrease .. 7,001
Table 111. presents the number of houses in-
habited, uninhabited, and building in 1841, 1851,
and 1861, with the decennial increase or decrease
between the two latter periods. The number by
which the inhabited houses had decreased for the
ten years ending the 31st of March, 1851, was
282,616, or 21.27 per cent. less than those recorded
on the 6th of June, 1841, while by the present in-
quiry we learn that the number of inhabited houses
is 993,233, and the decrease since 1851eaasnd e
of
aies only
52,990, or 5.08 per cent. The number of uninha-
bited houses in 1851 was 65,263, while in 1861 an
examination of the same item shows but 39,972.
In
e inhabited 4nBil.
ltBhselr e o
n wereyhouses
1,868, 3 ,3in 13a1h8n
in
there
hs in
1861repwr 3,0 e croee4s7is fTi
akbuild-
ing,i
h
fami-
lieslB6l 1
to.le4a.chThhoe lousslailnitielsBsiln 1.15 families, and in
ac-
commodation has decreaseeadtr arewsthiep pe r a
while h
r y,there has been an increase Kilkenny, min which also the population has l 1 t thee housecounties
T o
King's,very andlrg de-
creased;Queen's,
i
inha-
bited houses in the towns of Belfast
Carrick-
fergus, the county of Dublin (chiefly in the suburban
districts of the metropolis), and cities of Cork, Dub-
lin, Waterford, and Limerick, and the
counties of
Antrim, Armagh, Londonderry, and Sligo.
Table IV. exhibits the number of families in each
province, county, city, and certain large corporate
towns in Ireland in the years 1841, 1851, and 1861,
with the decennial decrease between 1841 and 1851,
and between the latter period and date at which the
present census was taken. The decrease in the num-
ber of families between 1841 and 1851 was 268,461,
or 18.23 per Cent.;
n 1 1861 the number of families re-
turned by the enumeratorsis 1,129,218,5h0wing a de-
crease of 75,101, or 6.24 per cent. on the returns made
for 1851. This decrease is most apparent in the
counties of Limerick, Queen's, Tipperary, Kil-
kenny, King's, and Clare. It has been least in
the province of Ulster, where it only AMOUnta to