THE

PROGRESS OF THE NATION.

INTRODUCTION.

Ir must, at all times, be matter of great interest and utility to ascertain the means by which any community has attained to eminence among nations. To inquire into the progress of circumstances which have given pre-eminence to one's own country would almost seem to be a duty. If this remark may be applied with propriety to any people and to any age, assuredly it may be so applied to this country and to the present generation, by which have been made the greatest advances in civilization that can be found recorded in the annals of mankind.

The task here pointed out has usually been left to be executed by the historian, writing in some age subsequent to that embraced in his inquiries, and it has been urged in support of this practice, that it is only after events have been cleared from the mists in which they are too commonly enveloped by party feelings or personal interests, that a sober and dispassionate estimate can be formed of their importance and tendency. To a certain extent, and within some limitations, this opinion is doubtless well founded, and if the inquiry which it is proposed to pursue in the following pages were connected with party feelings or opinions, or if the results were made to rest for confirmation upon deductions drawn from abstruse or fanciful theories, very little practical utility could be expected to attend the task. Such, however, is not the intention of this work, nor are such the means by which its object is proposed to be accomplished.

B

To point out the progress of the nation,-not of this or that section. of its inhabitants, but the progress of the whole social system in all its various departments, and as affecting all its various interests,—is the object proposed, while the means employed for its accomplishment have, as far as possible, been sought for in well-authenticated facts, and the conclusions which these suggest are supported by principles, the truth of which has in general been recognised.

Many circumstances concur in pointing out the advantage of adopting the commencement of the present century as the point of time whence to begin the inquiries thus set on foot.

This limitation has been principally influenced by the fact of the legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland having taken effect from the first day of the century; an event by which the different divisions of the United Kingdom were first brought under one uniform system of government, so far at least as to enable writers upon public economy to consider the two islands as one country, each being thenceforth necessarily and immediately affected by the situation and progress of the other.

Another motive, which has had considerable weight in thus limiting the period of inquiry, will be found in the fact, that the materials which can be brought in aid of a labour of this kind, and which relate to the occurrences of the present century, are vastly superior in amount and value to those that are to be collected from any existing records of earlier date. In support of this assertion, it will be sufficient to mention the decennary enumerations of the population, the earliest of which, as regards Great Britain, was made in 1801. These returns have supplied an amount of information far greater than any before possessed, upon a subject the consideration of which enters more or less into every question connected with national affairs.

If the foregoing circumstances had not been sufficient to determine the propriety of thus limiting the proposed inquiries in point of time, the fact that one-third of the period chosen was passed in a state of war, while in the other two-thirds this country has enjoyed profound peace, would equally have led to the adoption of that limit as affording

an opportunity for making a comparison between the tendency of such opposite conditions of social existence to promote or retard the progress of society in its various relations, whether commercial, financial, political, or moral.

It is proposed, then, to consider what has been the progress of the nation from the commencement of the nineteenth century, under eight general heads of inquiry. These are

1. Population.

2. Production-agricultural and manufacturing.

3. Interchange; including internal communication and trade, external communication and commerce, currency, wages, &c.

4. Public revenue and expenditure.

5. Consumption; under which head will be considered the expenditure of individuals for their personal enjoyment, and of societies or combinations of individuals for promoting the general convenience, as well as the quantities and value of commodities consumed.

6. Accumulation-as shown by the increase of national works and buildings, of commercial and agricultural stock, and of articles which minister to the comfort and convenience of individuals.

7. Moral progress; exhibiting the state of the kingdom in regard to crime, its amount, prevention, and punishment, and the progress of `education.

8. The extent and condition of our Colonies and foreign dependencies.

Towards the illustration of these various points, parliamentary and other official records have been used as far as practicable, and these records fortunately are sufficient in number, extent, and variety, to afford data upon nearly all the subjects embraced. The extensive inquiries that have been instituted from year to year by the Imperial Parliament, upon almost every branch of the national interests, have made available to our purpose an amount of testimony drawn from the most intelligent and experienced quarters, such as no other country or government in the world has ever brought together. Individual mem

bers of the legislature have likewise been accustomed to call upon our public departments for the production of various details, with the view of elucidating all matters that in any way affect either the interests of particular classes of their constituents, or those of the community at large. And, recently, the executive government has established a department for the collection and systematic arrangement of information for the use of the legislature and the public, which has been instrumental in bringing to light and classifying a considerable amount of information upon nearly every topic that is connected with the apparent condition of society.

These various channels of information have been diligently explored, and freely used, wherever they could be made available to the purpose in view; nor has recourse been had to any less conclusive testimony, except where official records are wanting, or for the purpose of corroborating those records in cases where they might seem to call for confirmation.

SECTION I.

POPULATION.

CHAPTER I.

Uncertainty of information previous to present century-Summary of Population in Great Britain, 1801, 1811, 1821, 1831, and 1841-In Ireland, 1821, 1831, and 1841-Rate of increase-Proportion of Males and Females-Population of England and Wales during the 18th century-Ages of Population, 1821 and 1841-Population of France, and rate of its increase-Births, Deaths, and Marriages, in England and Wales-In various countries-Mortality of young persons-Mortality in the Metropolis-In ManchesterIn Middlesex-In England and Wales-Mortality with reference to ages in England— In Ireland-Baptisms, Burials, and Marriages in England, 1801-1849-Proportions in different Counties-Mortality in Tavistock, 1779-1836.

THE information that existed respecting the numbers of the inhabitants of this country was exceedingly vague and imperfect up to the end of the 18th century. Till then, indeed, all knowledge upon the subject of our population was little more than conjecture. In the course of the 17th century the value of correct information upon this interesting head of inquiry began to be felt and acknowledged, and in the following century attempts were made to deduce the increase, or otherwise, of the population from the difference between the births and burials which had occurred in each decennary period, commencing from the year 1700. It is clear that this plan alone, even if followed with absolute accuracy, could not at any time be relied on for exhibiting the actual numbers of the people, since one chief element of the computation, the number of people existing at the date from which the computation commenced, was unascertained. But it is well known, also, that a considerable portion of the people in England have never been accustomed to avail themselves of the system of voluntary registration of their children. Hence computations from such materials could be considered as approximations only towards the establishment of data upon this leading branch of social economy.

Previous to the census of 1801, there existed no official returns of