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N the ANNUAL REGISTER of 1851 will be found an Abstract of the CENSUS of Great Britain and Ireland taken in that year. The tables comprise the general results of the vast labours of the officers employed, and set out in one comprehensive view the numbers of the population at the end of each decennial period from 1801, when the enumeration of the people was first made, to 1851; the rate of increase, and the number of habitations.

Such an aggregate of numbers is calculated to convey but a single and simple idea; the one, certainly, which is best calculated to impress and satisfy the public mind -that of increase. But when applied to such a purpose as this, great figures conceal great facts; and it must strike the most unreflecting that were the immense masses of people represented by these figures searched into, and separated into their classic and several individualities, facts of great interest and of immense practical value would be discovered. The Census Returns are the raw material from which important conclusions as to the social, moral, and intellectual condition of the people, not less than their numbers, are to be derived.

To the Registrar General (Major Graham) and William Farr and Horace Mann, Esqrs., his "assistants in the matter of the Census' were entrusted the organisation and execution of the vast labour; and when the task had been performed, on them devolved the higher duties of the statistical science-the duty of investigating and collecting large classes of facts, which were not generally ascertainable from the Population Tables, and thus preparing for the statesman, historian, and philosopher certain results which will guide to purposes of practical utility.

In the first place, it is no more than justice to the officers who executed in a single night the wonderful task of enumerating a whole nation of 28,000,000 of persons, that some account should be given of the machinery and process whereby they were enabled to perform their undertaking. The labour was indeed rendered far more difficult than on previous occasions, the advance of the statistical science demanding much more information than that of mere numbers :-it was resolved that occasion should be taken to exhibit not merely the statistics of parishes, and the parliamentary

and municipal boroughs, but also of other large towns, and of the ecclesiastical districts and parishes which have been recently created; and in addition to the usual inquiries concerning occupation, age, and birthplace, it was determined to ascertain various particulars relative to the relationships of individuals, such as husband, wife, son, daughter, and to their status or civil condition, such as married or unmarried, widower or widow; and certain physical conditions, as blind, or deaf and dumb; as to their religious condition, such as the number and accommodation of the places of religious worship appertaining to the various denominations, and the number of persons generally frequenting them; and also as to the existing educational establishments and the number of scholars under instruction. It did not appear, however, that the Census Acts authorised the inquiries proposed relative to religion and education; and although the request for voluntary information was generally complied with, these returns are in some degree imperfect, and the labour of the officials was somewhat increased.

The Census of the British Islands is taken under the authority of two Acts of Parliament; one of which applies to England, Wales, and Scotland, and the other to Ireland. The Islands in the British Seas (the Channel Islands) coming within the words of neither statute, the enumeration was accomplished by the agency of the Home Office.

The local machinery in England and Wales was thus organised. Advantage was taken of the distribution of the kingdom into registration districts (for the most part con

terminous with the poor-law unions). There are 624 such districts, each having a superintendent registrar; the districts are divided into 2190 sub-districts, each having a local registrar of births and deaths. These registrars were directed to form their sub-districts into enumeration districts, and to appoint an enumerator to each. Thus the whole kingdom was distributed among 30,610 enumerators.

In Scotland there is no system of registration. The Census was therefore committed to the sheriffs of the several counties; their substitutes appointed the parochial schoolmasters to the superintendence of the parishes, and these divided them into enumeration districts, and appointed proper enumerators. The number of parishes were 1010, and the enumeration districts 7873. In the Channel Islands 257 enumeration districts were formed. Public institutions, such as workhouses, prisons, asylums, were, in some instances, treated as districts. By these means the whole surface of Great Britain, and the small adjacent islands was divided into 38,740 enumeration districts.

There yet remained to be provided for the population afloat, either in our ports and inland harbours, or in British vessels on the high seas; and British subjects travelling or residing abroad. The first was committed to the charge of the officers of Customs, the second class was ascertained from the Registrar of Merchant Seamen; those serving in the royal navy from the Admiralty; the soldiers in the Colonies, the Indian army, &c., through the respective military authorities, and the travellers or residents abroad through the Foreign Office.