Recent Territorial Acquirements of the South. from the western bank of the river Sabine on the East, to the middle of the Rio Grande on the West, fronting the Gulf of Mexico, between three and four hundred miles; with a climate notoriously salubrious, and well adapted to the cultivation of cotton, sugar, tobacco and indigo; with a soil unsurpassed in fertility; with a flood of population overspreading it, and with already seven ports of entry within its limits (to wit): the ports of Sabine, Galveston, Matagorda, Arranzas, Brazos Santiago, &c., 127 and Brownsville. In a few years the exports from these ports alone would make any Atlantic seaport on which they centered an important commercial point. Norfolk is the natural point for concentration. Sail vessels can make a voyage between any port of the Gulf of Mexico and Norfolk in one-fourth less time than to any northern Atlantic seaport; and it will be conceded on all hands, that there is not a more eligible point for European trade on the whole Atlantic coast than Norfolk. ART. IV-PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES-CENSUS OF EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY. [We have presented the statistics of the United States' census to our readers, as fast as they were published, and a large volume of them will be found in the "Industrial Resources," where they have been condensed, in comparison with previous returns, from the beginning of the government. We continue the subject, and will endeavor to finish it in the present volume of the Review, which will constitute the fourth of the Industrial Resources, and make that work, in every respect, complete. Mr. Kennedy, the able Superintendent of the Census Department, deserves the approval of every good citizen for the zeal and ability with which his labors have been discharged.] During the sixty years which preceded the census of 1850, the annual increase of population, as has been shown by the superintendent, and appears in our volumes, has been 3 per cent. By the census of 1851, it appears that the population of England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and the islands, including persons in the army, navy, and the merchant service, amounted to 27,619,866, of whom 13,536,052 were males, and 14,082,814 were females. This population is distributed as follows, viz: Scotland. Ireland Houses. .1,047,735..3,176,727..3,339,067 which we can base statements, with reference to the progress of Ireland from time to time, must be made with reference to the termination of each ten years, ending in 1831, 1841, and 1851. The first census of Great Britain was taken in 1801, at which date the population amounted to 10,567,893. By the census of 1841, the population of Great Britain, and the islands of Jersey, Guernsey, and Man, amounted to 18,658,372. During each ten years, from 1801 to 1851, the actual increase was as follows, viz:-1,479,562-2,132,896 Males. Females. 2,184,542-2,260,749-2,227,438, being England and Wales. 3,280,961..8,762,588..9,160,180 at the rate of 14,18,15,14, and 12 per cent. 366,650..1,363,622 1,507,162 respectively. The actual increase of the population in fifty years, has been 21,826.. 65,511.. 76,405 10,317,917; the rate per cent. in fifty years, 98; the annual rate per cent. being 137. Islands in the British seas Part of the Army and 167,604.. 4,717,172 13,536,052 14,082,814 There exists no official record of the population of England previous to the commencement of the present century. The first enumeration of the population of Ireland was made in 1813, but so imperfectly was the work accomplished that English statists place no reliance on the correctness of the returns, and make no use of them as the basis of calculation; so that the only tables upon With respect to Ireland and the returns of 1821, the number of inhabitants at that period was 6,801,827. In 1831, 7,767,401-increase, 965,574; rate per cent., 14, 19. In 1841, 8,175,124-increase, 407,723; rate per cent., 5, 25. In 1851, 6,515,794-decrease, 1,659,330; rate per cent. 20. By this statement we perceive that the population of Ireland increased from 1821 to 1841, at the average rate of about one per cent per annum; while a decrease of 1,659,330 from 1841 to 1851, indicates a most appalling ing between the last two censuses, indiminution of population, amounting to two per cent. per annum, or 20 per cent. for the entire ten years-a reduction amounting to the total emigration from the whole United Kingdom from 1839 to 1850. The contemplation of such a state of affairs is the more melancholy, when we consider that the great diminution of population, in place of being equalized through the period of ten years, must have occurred mainly within one or two years; a reduction of population sinking the number of people to a lower point than it was in 1821, when the first census of Ireland was taken, and it would appear in still stronger light if we were to calculate the natural progress the population would have made up to 1846, the year of famine, and estimate what should be the present population, if no unnatural cause had operated to reduce it. The decrease extended to no less than 31 counties and cities, and varied from 9 to 31 per cent., while the only increase which occurred was confined to 9 towns and cities, to which many probably fled to find relief. The greatest decrease occurred in the county of Cork, the population of which was reduced 222,246, viz. :-from 773,398 inhabitants in 1841, to 551,152 in 1851equivalent to a reduction of 28 per cent. The decrease in the several provinces was as follows, viz. :-Leinster, 305,960; Munster,564,344; Ulster, 382,084; Connaught, 406,942. These startling and appalling facts proclaim the reality of the sufferings experienced from the famine in Ireland; and it is some consolation to feel that our distance did not preclude those efforts in her behalf by our own citizens and government, without which the desolation would have been even more strongly marked. During ten years, the population of the entire kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland increased from 26,833,496 to 27,452,262, or at the rate of a little more than half a million in ten years. In the last fifty years, England and Wales increased 102 per cent., (males, 105; females, 97.50;) Scotland, 78 per cent., (males, 84; females, 73.) The population of the United States during the past fifty years has increased at the rate of 337 per cent., and in ten years interven creased from seventeen and a fraction millions to over twenty-three millions, or 36 per cent. During the same period, (leaving Ireland out of view,) the popu lation of Great Britain increased at the rate of 12 per cent. during ten years, or 1 2-10 per cent. per annum. HOUSES.-By the last census, it appears that in the United States the number of houses occupied by free persons, amounted to 3,363,427. It would seem from the British reports, that the population of that country is supplied with houses almost in the precise proportion as in our own country. The proportion being so very near alike in the two countries, it would be, perhaps, satisfactory to institute some inquiry concerning the character of what are termed "houses," by the British census, that we may be enabled to judge of the propriety of estimating the degree of comfort enjoyed by the people, by their house accommodations. While our country cannot boast of the princely residences of European countries-the occupancy of which is limited to comparatively few persons-we think there is a general sufficiency and comfort in the house-accommodations of the American people, and that in the most remote regions of our country, they exhibit a very satisfactory degree of comfort and cleanliness where their accommodations are most limited. The fact is notorious that, where wretchedness is at all general, there will be found a population which formed habits and imbibed tastes in a foreign land. In comparing the population of Great Britain and Ireland with the inhabited houses, it appears that the whole number of houses in Great Britain amounts to 3,669,437, being nearly one house to each six persons. In Ireland, the number of inhabited houses amounts to 1,047,735, being the proportion of two houses to each thirteen persons. The fact is somewhat extraordinary, that almost precisely in proportion to the diminution of the Irish population since 1841, has been the reduction in the number of houses. By this is not meant the "Inhabited Houses," but the whole number, including inhabited and uninhabited, built and building, the number of which, in 1841, was 1,384,360 to 1,115,007 in 1851; being a reduction of 269,353. The fact is unquestioned, that Population of Belgium, Prussia and France. 129 The in a very great number of instances in of Ditricé, Director of the Statistical Ireland the term "house" should be un- Bureau. The subjects embraced, and derstood merely as applying to some- the divisions included, are public buildthing containing human beings, and ings enumerated as churches and houses not as indicating such a structure as the for prayer, school-houses, orphan and term usually signifies. poor asylums, buildings for the adminisBELGIUM-POPULATION AND HOUSES. tration of public affairs, justice, customs, -The population of Belgium, on the 31st &c.; buildings for ecclesiastical and December, 1845, amounted to 4,298,560; communal magistracies, military and on the 15th October, 1846, to 4,337,196. hospital buildings, private dwellingIn the cities of Belgium, the houses houses, factories, mills, &c., stables and inhabited amount to 170,455, and those barns; population, male and female, at uninhabited to 9,302. In the rural com- the ages of 5, 7, 14, 16, 19, 24, 32, 39, 45 munes, the inhabited houses number and 60th year, and those over 60. They 629,393; the uninhabited 20,411. Total are enumerated also according to relinumber of inhabited houses 799,848; gion, as far as respects Evangelical uninhabited, 29,713. Of these houses Christians, Roman Catholics, Greek 78.20 per cent. had but one (basement) Christians, Menonites and Jews. story; 18.32 per cent. were of two stories, deaf and dumb are returned as to age including the basement; and 3.48 per and sex, enumerating them at the ages cent. were of three or more stories, in- of 5, 15, 30, and over, respectively; and cluding the basement. Of the entire the blind are returned by age and sex at number of houses, 160,500 were insured the ages of 15, 30, and over 30, respecagainst fire for the average amount of tively. They enumerate their horses, 6,811 francs. One-fourth of the Belgian asses, mules, cattle, hogs, sheep, and population is found inclosed in cities, goats, dividing the sheep into three and the other three-fourths spread over classes. By their census (1839), the the rural communes. Of the number of population of Prussia amounts todwelling-houses in cities, 72,407 had but one room for a family; 65,461 had two rooms; and 100,402 had three or more rooms for a family. In the rural communes, 82,047 houses had but one room for a family; 217,324 had two rooms, and 352,925 had three or more rooms for a family. PRUSSIA. For the first time the Prussion government has made provision for the publication of their statistics in an extended form. Their census was taken at the close of the year 1849, of which a portion of the results have been published in one large quarto volume, to be followed by two others, under the direction Males... Total.... Number of families Number of dwelling-houses. destitute 8,162,805 8,168,382 16,331,187 .3,180,707 .1,945,174 Number of churches, 16,897; schoolhouses, 23,384; asylums for orphans and astical, military, and hospital buildings, persons, 5,710; civil, ecclesi35,353. The Evangelical Christians number.....10,020,161 Roman Catholics POPULATION OF FRANCE. 66 6,076,252 11,973 9,579 given, together with the ratio of deaths either continent. As has been truly to the number living; and some con- observed, "a race of men, launched upon siderations were adduced, showing the most feasible mode of arriving at the law of mortality. The work of condensing this order of statistics has been continued with such discrimination as the nature and value of the returns seemed to require. A great diversity of opinions, it is well known, exists with respect to the salubrity of the Northern and the Southern, the maritime and the inland localities of our country; and on no point, perhaps, could reliable information be more reasonably desired. It is not here proposed to discuss the numerous inquiries which this important branch of statistics suggests, how far it shall confirm existing opinions, or awaken an interest and prepare the way for more full researches. The returns being the first of their kind in the national census, may seem to require some mode of verification; and in this view, the following investigations have been prepared. the tide of existence, have by virtue of all the conditions, a determined course to run, which will make its own way, and fulfil its own destiny in accordance with a system of laws as unalterable and supreme as those which control the physical universe." Without enumerating the conditions and circumstances of vital development, the practical conclusion arises, that the values of life for different branches of the Teutonic family of nations, in temperate climates, will not greatly differ. And if the ratios of annual mortality, and the expectations of life in America, should substantially agree with the like values in European tables, the general correspondence would afford so many credentials of statistical authority. With respect to the Northern United States, the returns of Massachusetts have been selected for comparison with those of the national census of England. In applying the same mode of verification to the Middle States, the The great mass of the white popula- statistics of Maryland have been taken, tion of this country is chiefly of Teutonic the table described in last year's report origin, with a large admixture of Celtic. being revised, and male and female Located in temperate latitudes, with a lines distinguished. The computations climate not greatly differing from that have been executed by Mr. L. W. of Europe, the presumption naturally Meech, whose familiarity with the subarises that the same laws of life would ject, and scientific qualifications, afford prevail, and to nearly an equal degree, a sufficient guarantee of their accuracy. on both sides of the Atlantic. In the In contrast with these results, are set absence of any assignable and special the expectations of life in France. source of change, the universal law of proportion of deaths and the expectaself-preservation and protection might tions of life at its several periods, may be assumed to produce like results upon then be compared as follows: 1.-ANNUAL DEATHS PER CENT, 1850. -England-1841. The Proportion of Deaths in England and the United States. 131 the youthful character of the population of the new states, and the comparative absence of aged persons, who remain in the older states of the Union. The influence of this emigration will be understood by table 1, where, from the age of five to thirty, the deaths are only from one-half to one per cent., while above increases from two to thirty-five per cent. Wisconsin, and other Northwestern states, being newly settled by persons chiefly in the prime of life, in the comparative absence of older persons, the per centage of deaths should The expectation of life expresses in years and decimal parts of a year the future length of life to be lived, on an average, after attaining a given age. Thus, on arriving at the age of thirty, the average future lifetime of males, by the Massachusetts table, is thirty-four years, while that of females is thirtyfive and four-tenths. The expectations the age of fifty-five, the rate of deaths for other ages and columns of the table will readily be understood from mere inspection, though the analytic process of deriving the values requires much collateral research and professional experience. As the year is a natural unit of time, universally familiar, the expec- be less, as it is indeed given by the centation is doubtless the simplest method that could be devised for exhibiting, at a glance, the changing value of life. Viewed as a whole, the general correspondence, both of the ratios of mortality and the mean length of life, from independent sources, sufficiently verifies their accuracy. For general estimates, adopting the current classification of the states, the American census exhibits the following ratios of mortality, disregarding the ages at death: sus. This distinction will tend, in a considerable degree, to reconcile apparent differences in the returns. From the year 1840 to 1850 the population of the United States was augmented from seventeen millions to twenty-three millions, the increase being six millions in ten years. At the rate of annual mortality above stated, the total deaths, during the same period, were from two and a-half to three millions, being nearly equal to half the residual increase by birth and emigration. Thus, and in various other ways, which space number living here precludes to specify, statistics of the persistence of life, pointing ultimately to the removal of special causes of mortality, are essentially related to national happiness and advance Ratio to the 1 to 64 1 to 72 .1 to 73 ..1 to 73 1 to 80 1 to 73 It will be seen that the values for the ment. With respect to the longevity and three middle divisions strikingly agree vital characteristics of slaves and the free with the average for the United States, colored, the following epitome of life as a whole, representing one death to tables is given for three localities, seseventy-three living; and this is sub- lected from the Northern, Middle and stantially the ratio stated by Webster for Southern States. The values for Newinterior towns in 1805:- The annual England are deduced from the general deaths," he observed, "amount only to census, embracing 23,020 colored resione in seventy or seventy-five of the dents; that of Maryland is founded population." The inquiry might arise, upon the total returns of 90,368 slaves; in examining the preceding abstract, and that of Louisiana upon the aggrewhy the rate of deaths in the North- gate of 244,786 slaves, and 17,537 free western States should be so much lower colored, taken collectively. The relathan in the Middle States, and especially tive preponderance of female African New-England. In reply, the mere life is remarkable, while the prevalent ratios of mortality are not conclusive opinion of the greater mortality of male upon the question of relative longevity, without taking into account the proportions of young and aged, and the increase of population. Without attempting a full explanation, one source of the difference referred to undoubtedly lies in slaves in Louisiana is statistically confirmed. The table possesses a higher interest, not only from the definite and comprehensive information contained, but for being the first of the kind for the colored classes in the United States. |