If to those chargeable to parishes we add 4072 private patients, viz., 2161 males and 1911 females, we have a total of 21,427 individuals in England and Wales declared to be of unsound mind, or 1 in 775 of the population. A further report of the Commissioners in Lunacy was made to the Lord Chancellor in June, 1847, in which was given a summary of pauper lunatics and idiots in England and Wales on the 1st January of that year, viz. :— The total number of persons of unsound mind in England and Wales at the above date was 26,516, thus distributed : 1. In County Asylums, Hospitals, and Licensed Houses, subjected} 13,226 to the visitations of the Commissioners 2. In Bethlem, and in Naval and Military Hospitals not subjected} to such visitations 3. Paupers in Union Workhouses and places under local Acts 6. Single Patients in private houses, in charge of persons receiving 7. Excess of Pauper Patients in Workhouses, &c. 8. Criminals in Gaols 606 8,986 176 307 130 3,053 26,516 The per centage proportions of cures and deaths occurring in county and other public lunatic asylums, during the five years 1840 to 1844, were as follows: Yearly Yearly 15.9 10.5 Suffolk 30.1 11.8 York, West Riding. 13.4 7.9 Bristol, St. Peter's Hospital 20.3 19.7 15.6 12.2 31.7 10.7 The return from the Glasgow Lunatic Asylum, during 27 years from 1814 to 1840, show the following results: *Including the number remaining in the Asylum at the beginning of each period. CHAPTER III. OCCUPATIONS OF THE PEOPLE. Change in relative proportions of Agriculturists, Traders, &c., in England, Wales, Scotland, and Great Britain-Employment of Adult Males in the United Kingdom in 1831Occupations of Population of Great Britain, 1841-Proportions in each County of England, 1811, 1821, 1831, and 1841-Numerical Order of Counties relatively to each other at different periods-Division of Agricultural Population-Occupiers-Labourers --Great Britain and Ireland-Proportions employed in 1831 and 1841 in raising foodAdvantage of knowing the proportions into which Population is divided-Failure of attempts to ascertain this in the earlier enumerations-Result of the attempt in 1841Excise Licenses granted for exercising certain branches of business - Division of Employments in Ireland, 1841-Domestic Servants in United Kingdom-Employment of Adult Males in United Kingdom in 1841-Employment in Textile Manufactures— In Factories-In Mines-In manufacture of Metals-Occupations of People in France -Classification of Land-owners-Division of the Soil. A CHANGE has for some time been going forward in regard to the relative proportions of the inhabitants of this country who are employed in agricultural pursuits, or in trade, manufactures, &c. The following table will show the variations of this kind, as exhibited in Great Britain by the three decennary enumerations preceding that of 1841: Comparative Statement of the Numbers and Occupations of Families in England, Wales, and Scotland, in the Years 1811, 1821, and 1831, according to the Population Returns of those Years respectively; showing also the Proportions of each Class in Centesimal Parts. No comparison can be strictly made between the proportions shown by the foregoing table, and the result of the census of 1841, when the occupations of the people were ascertained, not according to the number of families, but of individuals. We are enabled, however, to compare the two periods, with reference to the occupations of males, 20 years of age and upwards, living in 1831 and 1841, and the result cannot be materially different from that which would have been shown had the division been made as before into families. The circumstance which most requires to be noticed in these statements is the decrease in the relative number of families employed in agricultural pursuits. In the course of 30 years the centesimal proportion of such families has fallen from 35-2 to 25.9, showing that the quantity of food for the production of which the labour of seven families was formerly employed, is now produced by the labour of five families. This is a fact of considerable importance, if considered with reference to another interesting question, that of the capability of the country to continue its present onward course with respect to manufactures, notwithstanding the physical impossibility under which it is placed, of adding in any material degree to the extent of soil whence the greater quantity of food then needed must be derived. The alteration indicated by the foregoing tables will appear in a more striking point of view, if a calculation be made of the positive increase in number of the families in each of the three classes, during the 20 years 1811 to 1831. It will then be seen that, while the increase in the number of families altogether was after the rate of 34 per cent., the addition to those of the agricultural class has been only 7 per cent., those of the trading and manufacturing class having received an accession to their the same time very nearly doubled in number. numbers of 27 per cent., and those of all other classes having been in 20 years of age and upwards, which was made in 1831, somewhat varied the centesimal proportions, as will appear from the following The further subdivision of the population, as relating to males abstract: England 3,199,984 141,460 94,883 744,407 314,106 964,177 |