Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/349

CENSUS 337 Age If (1) Dciif-aud-Dumb. Name and Surname. H ^mi,v. Condition. Sex. I irth l an ki Profession, or Occupation Where born. (2) Blind. (3; Imbecile or Idiot day;, j (4) Lunatic. 1 George Wood Head of Family Married M 48 (Farmer (of 317 acres, employ-^ ( ing 8 labourers and 3 boys; ) 2 Maria Wood Wife Married F. 41 3 Alan Wood Son Unmarried M. 20 Fanner s Son Surrey, Godstone 4 K. J2 5 Ellen Wood Mother Widow F. 71 Annuitant Canada Lu tic. 6 Eliza Edwards... Servant Unmarried F. 24 General Servant (domestic) Middlesex, Paddingtuii . 7 Ann Young Servant L nmarried F. 2 2 Dairymaid Surrey, Crovdon 8 U nmarried M. 21 Farm Servant I L , The despatch of forms and instructions began as soon as the office in Craig s Court was opened, and included 0,500,000 householders schedules, weighing about 41 tons. The enumeration books and forms sent out weighed in the aggregate about 54 tons. But in addition to these there were sent out from the central office no less than 115 different descriptions of printed instructions, forms, and circulars, including a calendar, so that certain opera tions might be summarized. The metropolitan, the municipal, and the county police afforded help in enumerating the houseless population. The strength of the navy, in forms prepared for the purpose, was returned by the Admiralty ; the merchant seamen, in port or out at sea, by Her Majesty s Customs, and by the Registrar-General of merchant seamen ; and His Royal Highness the Field-Marshal Commanding-in-chief supplied full returns of the various particulars respecting the army. The numbers of British subjects in foreign states and in India and the population of the Colonies were obtained through Her Majesty s Secretaries of State for Foreign Affairs, India, and the Colonies. Welsh schedules were issued for the use of a certain number of the Welsh people, and it was found that in 17,276 of these the particulars were inserted in the Welsh language, and had to be translated. The enumerators were instructed to consider a house as comprising all the space within the external and party walls of a building, whether occupied by only one family, or by several families living in distinct stories or apartments ; and they were also instructed, when delivering their schedules, to make a record, in a "memorandum book" supplied for the purpose, of the road or street in which every house was situated, and of the name or number of each house, and to .state the number of schedules left at each house. Unin habited houses, houses building, churches, chapels, and all other public buildings were likewise noticed in this book. With the assistance of the police, the enumerator had to make or procure returns of all persons not dwelling in houses, but sleeping in barns, sheds, caravans, or tents, or in the open air. Special schedules were printed for the enumeration of persons in public institutions, on board vessels, or in charge of boats and barges employed in inland navigation. Persons travelling during the night of Sunday, 2d April, were to be included in the schedule of the proprietor or manager of the hotel or inn, or in the schedule of the occupier of the house, at which they arrived on the morning of Monday, 3d April. Persons engaged in work away from home during the night of Sunday, 2d April, were to be included in schedules left at their houses. The cause of an unusual number of persons being temporarily absent or present was to be noted. When the enumerators had collected and arranged their schedules, they were copied into enumeration books pro vided for this purpose, and a summary was made of the popu lation of each civil parish, township, or place, and these books were delivered to the registrar on or before 10th April, by whom they were examined and corrected, and forwarded on or before 24th April to the superintendent registrar. The enumeration books were then revised by the superintendent registrar, who was at this stage required to fill up a printed form, showing a summary of the houses and population in each sub-district, municipal or parlia mentary city or borough, <fcc., and transmit the whole to the Census Office in Craig s Court. On receipt of the books and summaries by the Registrar- General, the abstract required by the 9th section of the Census Act was prepared and laid before Parliament on 20th June 1871. As soon as the preliminary report, consisting of 137 pages, was published, the work commenced at the central office of revising the enumeration books so as to ascertain the correct number of houses and population in each of the various subdivisions of the country, arid in order to ensure accuracy in the preparation of this work, statements of the houses and population of ecclesiastical districts and other local subdivisions were submitted to the clergy and to the various local authorities for approval. The registrars were required to state the cause of any remarkable increase or decrease of population, and a proof of the tables relating to each county was submitted to the clerk of the peace for correction and approval. The abstracts relating to the occupations and ages of the people were a great work. It was considered desirable not only to take out the number of persons of each sex in each occupation, but the number at each quinquennial period of age; for without this information the relative salubrity of the professions, and a great variety of other important ques tions could not be determined. In this arrangement of the people according to occupa tions and ages, they had not only to be classified in different orders, but it was necessary to find a place for every one of the 23 millions of population, so as to be enabled to pass them rapidly and distinctly in review. The classification of the living according to their pro fessions and occupations in combination with age has opened up a new field of inquiry, and the question can now be determined for sanitary purposes, and for life insurance, what effects the different professions and occupations have on health- at different ages. Formerly, the mean age at death was taken to show the healthiness or insalubrity of certain occupations. But the mean age at death depends upon many circumstances besides health, and among others, upon the ages of the living, which vary in propor tions in almost every profession, according as it is a pro fession that people enter early or later in life. Insurance offices and friendly societies will find the results of the third volume of the Census of England in 1871 in conjunction with the 14th Annual Report, and the two Supplements to the 25th and 35th Annual Reports of the Registrar-General, recording the mortality of persons at different occupations of great use to them in their trans actions, for it is evident that the lives of farmers, fur example, may be safely insured at much lower rates than the lives of licensed victuallers. Many important results for " civil counties" were pub lished in 1871 that will not be found in the census returns of 1861, such as a description of the territorial, executive, and ecclesiastical divisions in each county, more exact areas from the ordnance survey, additional columns showing

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