The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-09-03
A HUMAN BEEHIVE.
Density of the Population of the United
Kingdom.

| N
Density of the Population of the United
| Kingdom.
The United Kingdom of England and
Wales, Scotland and Ireland, with the
Channel Islands thrown in, are only
twice as large in area as the State of
Illinois, but they are all the "world' s
Workshop" and are supplying the unoc-
cupied parts of the habitable world not
only with manufactures and capital, but
with men. One of their largest exports
| is human flesh and blood, done up In
individual packages, aud shipped across
oceans and seas. The tide of emigration
has been flowing ever since the first
English settlement was made on the
American coast, more than $50 years
ago. 1t has had its ebbs and floods, but
has never been wholly cut off. Even
| during the revolution, some of the Brit
ish soldiers who came to prevent our in
dependence remained to enjoy it.
Emigration from the United Kingdom
attracted comparatively little attention
before 1915. 1t deserved little, for by
that year it had attained scanty proper
tions. The number of persons emigrat-
ing was only 2,0S1. The next year it
rose to 1850, and there was a steady
advance until 1919, when the number
was 1887. The average for the next
ten years was not as great as this, but
American flush times when we were
rushing upon the crisis of 1867 attract
ed crowds of British and Irish subjects.
In the five years from 1880 to 1894, in
elusive, the aggregate number of emf
grants from the United Kingdom to
America was 3S1, 1856. This was thought
enormous, but it is only little more
than the annual average now. Up TO
this time Q834) more persons had emf
grated to the British colonies in North
America than to the United States. Very
many of them had made Canada only a
half way house on their journey to the
"States," but numbers had changed
their home and not their flag. The tide
turned in 1884. AS late as 1889, how
ever, the emigration cf the last twenty
five years had sent 499, 800 to the colonies
and only AIT, ,765 to the Estates" But
from 1910 the figures were respectively
to the Canadas 993, ,756, and to the
Estates" 4, 720,570.
The official record of emigration from
Il
omic event of that time-the Irish
famine, the discovery of gold in Cali
fornia and Australia, the American finan-
cial panic of 1857 the Civil War, etc.
The '57 crisis cut down British emigra-
ton to this country from 126, 905 in 1857
to SO, TIC in 1858. The outbreak of the
Civil War reduced it from 81, 500 in 1860
to 1876 in 1861. The Irish famine
forced it up from 50, ,239 in 1916 to
142, ,154 in 1S47, and 1SS, 233 in 184S,
and 9,450 in 1S49, and 230,S85 in
1850. Corresponding figures for the
North American Colonies were 43, 439 in
1916, and 109, $50 in 1S47, when it sud-
denly dropped to 81, ,065 in 1S4S. When
gold was discovered in Australia, the
number of emigrants thither guadrupled
in a year. From 21, ,532 In 1851 it be-
came 81, ,SS1 in 1852, and 81, 401 the next
year, and S3,237 the next, or 1854. 1t
continued to decline in Australia down
to II, ,227 in 1870.
In 1873 the total number of emigrants
from the United Kingdom was 80, 0,612,
or about per cent. of the whole popu-
lation of the Kingdom. OF these per-
sons, 1880 came to the United States.
This rate Of decrease exceeds the annual
average increase of the British popula-
ton between 1861 and 1871. For these
ten years it was only 8.S per cent. But
the great proportionate loss was from
Ireland. Nevertheless population is now
increasing more rapidly than emigration
and death together can thin it. Accord
ing to the report of the Registrar Gen
eral, the net daily increase in the
population of the United Kingdom is
705. In 1865, the total population
was 29,S61 1908. In 1874 it was 3d.
412, 200.
The wonderful fact shown by these fig
ures is, that this little cluster of islands
on the western shore of Europe should
produce such enormous numbers of hu-
man beings. England and Wales, in
which the land is owned by compare
lively few persons, are more densely
populated than any other country in
Europe except Belgium, which is land
of manufactures and farm patches. Yet
the density increases every year, despite
the hundreds of thousands who leave
the teeming shores of Old England and
ancient Erin for the New World.-Chi-
cdgO Tribune.