II. Summary Account of the Population of Great Britain and Ireland, including the Army and Navy at the Periods at which Censuses have been taken, with the Ratio of Increase in the intervening decennial Periods. Square Miles Statute Acres Square Miles Statute Acres Inhabited III. Account of the Total Area (including and excluding Water) in Square Miles and Acres, of the Inhabited Houses, and of the Total Population per Square Mile, including and excluding Water, in the different Divisions of the United Kingdom, in 1841. IV. Account of the Number of Persons, distinguishing between Males and Females, belonging to the different Divisions of the United Kingdom in 1841; showing, also, the Number of Houses in each, with the Number of Persons chiefly occupied in Agriculture, Trade, Manufactures, &c. V. Abstract Account of the Numbers, Ages, and Sexes of the Persons in different Occupations in Great Britain. Too much stress should not, however, be laid on these returns. They make the number of those engaged in agriculture appear to be less and of those engaged in trade and manufacture greater than the truth. The smiths, for example, with the numerous carpenters, bricklayers, saddlers, harness-makers, and others employed in the shoeing of husbandry horses, and in the construction of agricultural buildings, implements, &c., are as obviously agricultural labourers as ploughmen or mowers; and contribute to produce corn, quite as efficaciously, and but little, if at all, less directly. Such persons, however, instead of being included among the agricul 38,300 703 5,280,742 turists, are reckoned in the class of artificers or manufacturers, to which, indeed, they technically belong; and it is necessary to keep circumstances of this sort steadily in view in fairly appreciating the numbers really dependent on different businesses. Population in 1845.-Supposing, which there is every reason to believe is the fact, that the population of Great Britain and Ireland has continued to increase since the census of 1841 in about the same ratio as during the ten previous years, it will now (1845) amount to about 28,100,000. Hence the U. Kingdom is, in respect of population, the fourth state in Europe, being surpassed only in the number of people by Russia, Austria, and France. Industry. To attempt any exposition of the causes that have rendered Great Britain so preeminently distinguished by her industry and progress in the arts, would lead us into discussions foreign to the object of this work, and which, though that were not the case, our limits would hinder our attempting. It is sufficient to observe that they are of different kinds; and that we are not indebted for our superior wealth and civilisation to one or a few, but to a number of concurring causes: to the various favourable physical and moral circumstances under which we are placed. We have already glanced at the influence of the first; but that of the second class of circumstances has not been less powerful. The security of property and freedom of industry we have long enjoyed in a greater degree than any other European nation, have powerfully promoted and stimulated industry, by impressing every man with the conviction that he would be allowed to enjoy, accumulate, and dispose at pleasure, the fruits of his industry and skill: our free institutions, opening, as they have done, the highest stations to individuals of talent and ability, how humble soever their origin, have diffused through all classes a desire to excel, and a determination to rise superior to every difficulty. It is characteristic of Englishmen "Certari ingenia, contendere nobilitate Noctes atque dies, niti præstante labore, Ad summas emergere opes, rerumque potiri." Even the magnitude of our national burdens, which, to a superficial observer, might appear to be a heavy drawback on our exertions, has really been a means of adding to their efficiency. Had they been oppressive, their operation would no doubt have been very different: but it was seen that they might be met by increased exertions, and these have been made: they have, in fact, operated on the public like an increase of the necessary expenses of his family on a private individual; and occasioned efforts of industry, economy, and invention that have more than countervailed their influence; and which we should have in vain attempted to produce by any less powerful means. Pretty full accounts will be found in the articles in this work appropriated to England, Scotland, and Ireland, of the agriculture, manufactures, and commerce of each. Here we shall only endeavour to lay before the reader a few general results; and these, we regret to say, are of less importance than might have been anticipated. Owing to the extreme difficulty of obtaining accurate returns in regard to the extent or value of any considerable branch of industry, and the limited attention that has been paid to such subjects, but little information has been collected on which it would be altogether safe to rely. The following estimates are therefore submitted, not as being free from error, or wholly to be depended upon, but as having been compiled with considerable care, and being, we believe, better entitled to credit than most others 'that have been put forward. Agriculture Extent of cultivated and uncultivated land. The numbers in the subjoined Table of the extent of the cultivated (including meadows and arable pasture grounds) and uncultivated land in the different divisions of the U. Kingdom, have been derived as follows; viz. those for England and Wales, from a statement furnished by Mr. Couling, land surveyor and civil engineer to the Emigration Committee of 1827; those for Scotland, from the General Report of Scotland (III. Append. p. 5.); and those for Ireland, from the statement furnished by Mr. Griffith to the Lords' Commttee on Tithes. England British Islands (Jer- Totals 48,779,613 28,227,435 77,007,048 The totals for Ireland and Scotland are exclusive of lakes. These returns however, even at the time when they were framed, had no pretensions to accuracy, and could be considered merely as time that has since elapsed, and the rapid spread rough approximations. And considering the of agricultural improvement, there can be no manner of doubt that the proportion of cultivated land has since been materially augmented. In Scotland, only, this extension has been supposed to amount to about a million of acres; and we incline to think that, large as it may seem, estimate is little, if at all, beyond the mark; while the immense number of acts passed of late years for the inclosure and division of wastes and commons in England and Wales, shows that there, also, the extent of the cultivated land must have been widely extended. this The following table (see next page) has been compiled from a great variety of data, and has received the corrections of some eminent practical authorities. At the close of the war in 1815, the produce of wheat in England and Wales did not exceed 3 quarters, or 24 bushels, an acre. But such and so great has been the progress of improvement in the interval, that its produce at present certainly amounts to, or rather perhaps exceeds, 4 quarters, or 32 bushels, an acre. This, supposing there are 3,800,000 acres under wheat in England, makes an addition of as many quarters, or of 30,400,000 bushels to the produce, exclusive of the farther quantity furnished by the greater breadth of land under tillage. And it is material to observe, that the progress of improvement has been even more rapid in other parts of the U. Kingdom than in England; the produce of all descriptions of crops, and the land in cultivation, having been every where increased in a degree that could not previously have been anticipated. According to Dr. Colquhoun, the consumption of corn in the U. Kingdom in 1814 amounted to 35,000,000 quarters. The pasture and wood land of England and Wales, (the former included under the term cultivated land) may be estimated at about 16,500,000 acres, its produce being worth about 2l. 10s. an acre a year, or in all, 57,750,000l. But to this may be added about 2,000,000l. for the annual value of the waste lands, or of the mountain pastures, heaths, marshes, &c. not included in the pastures, making the total value of the produce of the various descriptions of wood and grazing grounds about 59,750,000l. a year. This produce may be distributed as follows: Cattle 1,100,000 at 127. cach £ 13,200,000 600,000 10,200,000 4,056,000 1,000,000 3,000,000 Poultry, eggs, rabbits, deer, &c. - 1,344,000 13,000,000 12,000,000 1,350,000 £59,750,000 Dairy produce, or milk, butter, and cheese Account of the Extent of Land in the United Kingdom under the principal Descriptions of Crops; the average Rate of Produce per Acre; the total Produce; the Amount of Seed; the Produce under deduction of Seed; and the total Value of such Produce. The total annual value of the agricultural pro- | Hence, the aggregate annual value of the duce of England and Wales may therefore be agricultural produce of the United Kingdom estimated at would be Crops and gardens Pasture land and wood will be Value of crops and gardens of pasture and wood land of uncultivated land and wastes 2,000,000 £143,406,071 e 20,327,144 7,500,000 1,000,000 £28,827,144 £227,771,548 Rent. -The first authentic information in Taking the extent of pasture land and wood land in Scotland, exclusive of heaths, wastes, &c., regard to the rent of land in Great Britain was at 2,500,000 acres, and estimating its produce to obtained under the Property Tax Act. It appears be worth, at an average, 31. per acre, its total from the returns made by the property tax value will be 7,500,000l.; but to this has to be commissioners, that the total rental of England added the value of about 13,000,000 acres of moun- and Wales amounted, in 1810, to 29,503,070., tain pastures, heaths, and waste land, the value and that of Scotland to 4,851,4047. Owing to of which has been estimated, apparently with the rapid rise of prices, in the years immegreat moderation, at about 1,000,000l. Hence diately subsequent to 1810, the gross rental of the total value of the land produce in Scotland England and Wales had increased, in 1815, to 34,330,462/., and that of Scotland to 5,075,2421. Since then we have no authentic information to guide us. An account has, it is true, been published (Parl. Paper, No. 102. Sess. 1845,), of the value of the lands, houses, and other fixed property, assessed to the existing property and income tax in 1842. But this tax does not affect those holding lands and houses whose gross in. comes are under 150l. a year; and in consequence a considerable number of the smaller class of proprietors were not assessed; though, as there is no account of the precise number or value of the properties thus excepted from the assessment, there are no means of arriving at the exact amount of the total gross annual value of the land and other fixed property. We, however, subjoin the following summary of the returns in the paper now referred to. (See below (A).) The estimates given above of the extent of land under crop in Ireland, and the magnitude and value of the crops, are less to be depended on than those having reference to England and Scotland. But assuming them not to be very wide of the mark, there will remain about 8 millions of acres of pasture land, producing, at an average, about 27. 10s. an acre a year, to which may be added about 1,500,000l. a year for the value of mountainous tracts, bogs, and marshes : so that, on the above hypothesis, the entire annual value of the land produce of Ireland will be The property tax does not extend to Ireland, so that our information with respect to the rental of that important part of the empire is less authentic. But Mr. Griffiths, the engineer, whose means of acquiring accurate information on the subject cannot well be surpassed, submitted to a (A) Account showing the total Annual Value of the Real Property assessed to the Property Tax in Great Britain, in 1842-3, distinguishing between England and Scotland, and between the Assessments on Lands and those on Houses, Tithes, Manors, &c. committee of the House of Lords a carefully compiled estimate of the rental of each county of Ireland (see IRELAND) in 1832, from which it results that the gross rental of that kingdom then amounted to 12,715,478.; and this estimate is farther confirmed by the returns obtained under the valuation for the poor's rate; from which it appears that the gross annual value of the land of Ireland, in 1841, amounted to 13,738,9671. The profits of the farmers have been very variously estimated; but, on the whole, we believe they may be safely taken at about half the rent. But supposing this hypothesis to be a just one, their aggregate amount would not be represented by half the gross rental of Britain or Ireland, 64 inasmuch as that includes the rental of the lands occupied by proprietors, or the rent which it is supposed they would bring, provided they were let. Manufactures. The manufactures of Great Britain are far more extensive and important than any that have ever belonged to any other nation. We may, indeed, be said to be purveyors of most descriptions of manufactured articles for all the world; and there are but few nations, how remote or barbarous soever, that are not indebted for some considerable portion of their comforts, and sometimes even of their necessaries, to the skill and ingenuity of British artisans. A very large proportion of the people of our own country are engaged in, |