and the state of that city. In the opening paragraph, he says:-"The observations on the London Bills of Mortality have been a new light to the world, and the like observations on those of Dublin may serve as a snuffers to make the same candle burn clearer." It would be beside our purpose to enter too minutely into detail in noticing the manner in which this Census was carried out.* The Report which accompanies the voluminous tables describes the mode in which the required information was collected, which was far more copious, more comprehensive, and better expressed than in any previous statistical publication which had appeared in Ireland, and procured for it, on high au thority, the eulogium of being a model of a Census. For every county in Ireland a general table was prepared, which at one view showed the number of persons, the number of houses, the number of families, classified according to their pursuits and means; their occupations classified as ministering to either physical or moral wants; and the state of education, indicating the number under rudimentary instruction, so far as reading and writing, of persons from five years old and upwards. Then followed more detailed tables-of ages, education, marriage, house accommodation, and occupations. The amount of emigration, home, colonial, and foreign, is also elaborately shown, while the important head of rural economy is exemplified in tables, showing the division of land, the extent of woods and plantations, and the amount of farm and live stock. The vital statistics of the preceding decade,

embracing the several subjects of births, marriages, ages, and deaths, are also ably collected, and supply, in the absence of a general registry, much practical information. Accompanying the table of deaths, there is a voluminous Report by Mr. Wilde to the Census Commissioners, which gives a most interesting account of the history of the prevailing sources of mortality in Ireland. There are also attached to the general Report four maps of Ireland, which indicate, by comparative shading and explanatory figures, the density of the population, the extent of each class of house accommodation, the state of education, and the amount of property in live stock. In addition to these maps there are curves, representing the number of persons living, at every year of age, in the several provinces, the city of Dublin, the rural district of Mayo, and in the whole of Ireland. The appendix to the Report contains other interesting tables, devoted chiefly to the vital statistics of the Census. The total population returned in the Census for 1841 was 8,175,124, being an increase of but 5 per cent. as compared with 1831; while the addition to the numbers from 1821 to 1831 was 144 per cent. This small amount of increase in the decade, from 1831 to 1841, is attributed by the Commissioners to various local as well as general causes-emigration, decrease in the annual addition to the resident population, recruits raised, and also the omission of the enumeration of the army serving in Ireland. The actual increase, taking these elements into consideration, is thus tabulated by the Commissioners:

With respect to the Census of 1821, the Commissioners of 1841 observed, that it was rather below than above the truth, while that of 1831 showed beyond all doubt numbers greater than the real population, which is sufficiently established from the fact that the enumerators were paid in proportion to the numbers they enumerated; the obvious tendency of which, as has been justly stated, would be to augment the total numbers. Thus, when allowance is made for the deficit of the census of 1821, and the excess of that of 1831, the computed increase of 893,271 in ten years, being at the rate of nearly twelve per cent., would indicate a reasonably uniform rate of increase in the fixed portion of the population.

From 1695 to 1725, the population had doubled. From 1725 to 1777 the increase was not at the same rate. From 1777 to 1831 we had nearly trebled our numbers; and from thence up to 1841, as we have just seen, there had been a uniform rate of progress. In 1847, Lord Clarendon being de

irous of ascertaining the quantity of food produced in Ireland in that year, applied to the Lords of the Treasury for a small sum of money for the purpose of making an agricultural survey. This interesting inquiry, which was of such obvious value on account of the change which the country was undergoing, was entrusted to Captain Larcom, and has since been annually carried on under that gentleman's superintendence. The police were employed in this service, and, as Captain Larcom says in his Report-"To the admirable discipline and organization of that body it is due, that the most extensive inquiry can be conducted in Ireland with as much precision and exactness as a model operation on the most limited scale."

Having now endeavoured to trace and describe all that has been, from the earliest attempts, done to compute the number of the people of Ireland, down to their actual enumeration, in 1841, it may be well to look synoptically at the results, before we proceed further:

We are now in 1851; another decade has passed; another periodical enumeration has taken place; the returns have been received by the authorities; and the world has learned the appalling fact, that Ireland has lost, in actual numbers, in somewhat less than five years, 1,649,340 of her inhabitants. Up to the year 1845 nothing had occurred to justify a doubt, but that the ordinary rate of increase would have been maintained. In the latter end of that year, the island, then in a state of comparative prosperity, was visited with a famine, which, in its direct devastating effect, and in the consequences which flowed from it, has no parallel in history. To that famine, thousands upon thousands yielded their lives; to the pestilence that followed it, thousands more; while, to avoid the horrors of both, myriads of the panic-struck inhabitants sailed from our shores. Up to 1845, the emigration to the United States and our colonies, from the United Kingdom, was, comparatively speaking, trifling in amount. In 1843 it was 57,212; in 1845, 70,086; in 1846, the numbers mounted to 129,851; and in 1847 they reached 258,270; in 1848 and 1849 they were 248,089 and 299,498. In 1850 the numbers were 280,849, of which 208,000 were Irish; and there can be little doubt that the next Report of the Emigration Commissioners will show, in the year 1851, a considerable increase in Irish emigration. Thus, as it is admirably put in Thom's Almanac for 1851 :—

"The emigration of the last three years gives an annual average of 268,459 persons, being not very far short of the whole annual increase of the United Kingdom. If this emigration be analysed, the results as regards Ireland will be much more striking. For, assuming nine-tenths of the emigration from Liverpool to be Irish (which is a low estimate), and even omitting altogether, for want of accurate information, those who proceed from the Clyde, it will appear that the Irish emigration during the last three years has been 601,448; giving an average of 200,482 a-year. Now, the increase of population in Ireland between 1831 and 1841, as appears from the census returns, was 407,723, in spite of an emigration amounting during the same years to 455,239, thus making the real increase to be 862,959, or 86,295 a-year. Assuming the increase to have been at the ame rate since 1841, when the popula

tion was returned at 8,175,238, it would give for the eight years, to the close of 1849, 707,480 souls, or 88,435 per annum. The emigration, on the average of the last three years, according to this estimate, exceeded the increase of the population by 123,844 souls per annum. At this rate, therefore, the population would be decreased in about eight years by emigration alone to the extent of 1,000,000 souls; and when it is also taken into account that the emigration comprises a large proportion of those who are in the vigour of life, and on whom the increase of population mainly depends, it may be assumed that its influence in checking such increase is even greater than the mere figures imply."

So far then as the population has been decreased by emigration, we can have no difficulty at getting at the numbers accurately; but it remains for the Census Commissioners to inform us what proportion of the people died by famine and disease; when, where, and at what ages they ceased to live. We are now 296,033 fewer in number than we were in 1821, thirty years ago, and 1,659,340 less than we were in 1841. These are the figures which the official abstract presents. In every county in Ireland, with the exception of Dublin, there has been a decrease, while the principal cities (Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Galway, Carrickfergus) show an increase, ranging from three to forty-three per cent. ; the former occurring in Drogheda, the latter in Galway. In the County of Mayo the population in 1841 was 388,887; the returns for 1851 make the numbers 173,798, being a decrease of 30-6 as compared with 1841! In Roscommon the falling off has been still greater, 31-3 per cent. In Cork 30-6; and this has all occurred in the last five years of the past decade. That the calamity fell heaviest on those parts of Ireland where the people trusted too much to the potato for support, and where there is but little prudential restraint observed in contracting marriage, is abundantly shown upon the face of the returns from Mayo, Galway, Cork, Clare, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, and Roscommon. In the northern counties, though the decrease has been general, yet the inhabitants did not suffer from the depopulating effects of the famine to anything like the same extent as in the southern and western provinces. In Leinster and Ulster the decrease per cent, between

1831 and 1841 is 15 and 16; in Munster and Connaught 23 and 20. The comparative safety with which the north passed through the ordeal, may be accounted for by the superior social condition of the people, induced, in an agricultural point of view, by the large average size of their arable farms, proving the greater skill and industry of the population, and also by the existence of manufactures, whereby remunerative employment is provided for both sexes. On the other hand, in the remote and backward parts of the west and south, the average size of the farms is very small, and a large proportion of the soil is uncultivated. When, therefore, the staple and almost exclusive food of the inhabitants came under the influence of a destructive blight, they were unprepared to meet the calamity, had no resource to turn to, and decimation of the population ensued. Besides they had been going on increasing their numbers at a ratio which, as compared with their means of subsistence, left them in comparative poverty and distress; and when Government relief, as well as private charity, ceased to be administered, the ruined and broken-hearted peasants left their wretched homes in the counties to swell the numbers of the ad.

joining cities and towns. It is no proof of the prosperity of the town of Galway to have thus added to its population 7,422 in ten years; neither can the increase which has taken place in the cities of Cork, Limerick, and Waterford, be looked upon as evidence of their commercial improvement or prosperity. In the counties of Antrim and Down there has been a small increase, while Belfast reckons 24,352 more people than dwelt there in 1841. This increase must be attributed to causes very different from those which have operated in the other cities and towns, for the northern capital had resources within itself not only to absorb this addition to its numbers, but to provide the means of an independent livelihood for the incomers. In Dublin, both county and city, there has been an increase; in the former 22,124, in the latter 7,459; and in this combined respect thus present an exception to the rest of Ireland. This may be reasonably accounted for from the fact, that disastrous times reduced the incomes of the gentry to such an extent as to prevent them residing in their country mansions; and being thus com

pelled to economise in smaller establishments, they came to reside in the metropolis and its county environs. So far, then, as regards the enumeration of persons, we believe these to be the leading features of the census of 1851, as expressed in the abstract of the returns, in figures contained in one sheet of paper. They tell us, alas! of a decline of human life, of which there is no such record to be found in the page of history. Revolutions, wars, famines, plagues, and fires have done their worst elsewhere, but where, in so small a geographical space, is there to be found an example of so vast and so rapid a decrease in a population which, at the common rate of progress, should have now amounted to nearly nine millions? The Census Commissioners of 1851 have yet much to tell us. We can ascertain, as we have already stated, with accuracy, the amount of annual emigration; and so far we shall be enabled to account for a portion of the great decrease; but will the authori. ties be enabled to show what became of the rest of the population?

The Commissioners of 1841 felt, that in inquiring into the several subjects of births, deaths, and marriages, they were only giving information from sources upon which they could afford but a "tolerable approach to accuracy," and in their Report stated, that "whilst the ages of the living were those of the whole community, as enumerated in 1841, the births, marriages, and deaths were in various degrees short of the total amount of those which had occurred during the previous ten years, as they had, of course, no account of those events in families which had left the country, or had become extinct from natural causes, during that period." If this difficulty existed in 1841, how much more have the Census Commissioners of 1851 to contend with? But from such materials as are before them, we have no doubt we shall have all the facts well digested. There are other points of inquiry, however, which do not present the same obstacles in arriving at the truth, and an opportunity is now presented, of collecting a mass of statistics, the practical value of which cannot be over-estimated.

The act for taking an account of the population of Ireland in 1851, named the 31st of March as the day for the enumeration, thus decreasing the decennial period by sixty-eight days.

This alteration, which was recommended, we believe, by Captain Larcom, was also adopted in the Census Act of Great Britain. In Ireland it has the advantage of securing the enumeration of the harvest labourers who yearly emigrate to England between the months of May and August, and also by finding the agricultural portion of the population employed in the several localities, it ensures their more correct topographical distribution. The number of harvest labourers who temporarily emigrated in 1841, that is previous to the 6th of June, amounted only to 5,481, a number which had no very great disturbing influence in arriving at a true estimate of the population.

The English act directs the Census to be taken by the registrar-general of births, deaths, and marriages, subject to the supervising authority of the Home Secretary. In Ireland the act simply requires that the Census shall be taken by the police, and that the returns shall be reduced into order by such persons as the Lord Lieutenant should appoint. We understand it was originally intended that Captain Larcom was to have been the chief Commissioner. His health, however, having given way under the pressure of arduous duties in the Board of Public Works, he was reluctantly compelled, by his medical advisers, to resign the appointment. Upon his resignation it was deemed advisable, with the view of assimilating the executive of the Irish Census to that of the English, to appoint W. Donnelly, Esq. LL.D., the registral-general of marriages, to the principal Commissionership. With him were associated Mr. Wilde as assistant Commissioner, and Mr. Singleton as Secretary. The public mind was well prepared for affording the required information, and the press of all political and religious persuasions, with one exception, most materially aided the authorities in explaining, in the clearest possible manner, the object of the Census. In addition to the subjects of former inquiry, there was instruction to specify the deaf, dumb, and blind. More exact information was given as to the mode of filling up the forms left at each house; and a kindly appeal was made to the country, asking, as a favour, to be supplied with that which they were entitled by the statute to demand as a right. Letters were also addressed to

the clergy of every denomination, as well as to professional and other classes of the community, enlisting their cooperation and support. The forms supplied to the public institutions required more detailed information than those issued in any previous Census. In fact the greatest possible care appears to have been taken to acquire the most accurate and minute know. ledge of the condition of the country. We may here state that the agricultu ral survey of the present year has been entrusted to the present Commissioners, and will form, on its completion, a volume of its proceedings. The occupations of the people will be not the least important part of the inquiry, and we shall, no doubt, have them classified in such a way as will enable us to ascertain whether there has been an increase or decrease in the number of our producers, manufacturers, and traders, as well as in those occupied in professional pursuits, and in the cultivation of the arts and sciences. It has occurred to us that a very interesting statistic, in reference to occupations, would be afforded by an examination of the money orders of the Post-office, which, if we recollect rightly, requires the sender of the money to state his profession or occupation. It would be valuable to ascertain the class of persons who avail themselves of this medium of transmitting money. Under the several heads of emigration, rural economy, education, and vital statistics, there is a wide scope for inquiry; and from the nature of some of the new forms which have been issued, we shall be supplied with important statistics, particularly as regards the extent of our shipping trade, foreign and coastwise, with interesting details on the number of our fishing boats. All these matters will form the subject for future examination. Our preparatory object has been now effected. We have endeavoured to show how the population of Ireland has been computed from the earliest times, and we have briefly called attention to the present inquiry, the materials of which, when collected and reduced to order, will supply us with a knowledge of the condition we were in at a very important epoch in our history, and show, we trust, by comparison, when ten more years shall have rolled over, the great advance which, with God's blessing, will be observable in the prosperity of the country.