|
Daily News (London)
Thursday March 28 1861
The Forthcoming Census
The following official memorandum on some of the objects and uses of the census of 1861 has been issued, and will be read with interest. It may be stated that there will be no investigation as to the "religious profession" of any one. That inquiry, when propsed last year, having been met with general disapproval, was abandoned by the government.
The census concerns every individual in the British Isles. Early in April a schedule will be left with the occupier of every house and apartment; shortly after sunrise, on Monday, 8th April, 30,441 enumerators in England and Wales will begin their calls at every house and collect the schedules which they have previously left, filling up those of persons who have been unable to write. A similar army will perform a precisely similar operation in Scotland, in Ireland, and in Australia. It is sometimes asked, why is the seventh census to be taken? What is the use of the information to be collected? The injunction "know thyself" is as binding on nations as on individuals, and self-knowledge is in both cases as useful as it is difficult to acquire. The householder takes some note of the members of his family; the merchant takes stock; and governments count the numbers of their people. The population of a country is not only of great interest in science, but it is a piece of information with which every educated person is familiar, and is indeed the primary heading in every elementary book of geography. That the population may be correctly known, the census must be taken. The usefulness of information of this kind is shown by the demand for the London and other directories, Court Guides, Law Lists, and Peerages. The census supplies materials for a national directory, in which the names of every englishman will be found inscribed. But the information in these national books will be more comprehensive than that in the directories; for after the names of the inmates in each inhabited house, their sex, age, conjugal condition, occuupation, and birthplace, will be written. Thus, by an analysis of the returns, the population can be classified. We can learn the number of makes and females living at different ages, distinguishing those married and unmarried, and those who fabricate in every variety of industry the infintite number of valuable products in these islands. A knowledge of these facts about the English people would in itself be useful and gratifying to a liberal curiosity; precisely as is an acquaintance with the plants and minerals and animals of the world, and the stars of the heavens, whose "multitudes" have been catalogued by scientific men. It is moreover well established that the relations of men to each other, and all their acts, are governed by laws of universal interest, which can be deduced from the observations of which the census supplies the most essential part. some of these laws are too recondite for casual discussion, but the doctrine of population may be referred to as of obvious importance.
The area of these islands is limited, and it is a matter of no small interest to know how many mouths there are to be fed, at what rates they are increasing, and how they are likely to increase by subsisting marriages; how many are dependent on the several kinds of industry, deriving materials from the produce of the soil, or from the wider fields of foreign commerce. The census supplies answers to all these questions, and shows how population is increased or diminished by marriages at different ages, by the different species of industry, and by emigration to our vast colonial possessions. the numbers of fighting men, as well as intelligence and wealth, determine the position England holds in the presence of the other great powers of Europe; and are the measure of the influence which it can exert in the cause of freedom all over the world. The census displays to her enemies the force invaders have to dread, and to friendly states the numbers of their friends in England.
The first census was taken under Mr. Pitt's administration in 1801. It was the year of the Union with Ireland; a year of famine, and a year of sanguinary war with France, having the northern confederacy for its allies. The population of Great Britain was estimated at 7,392,000 in 1751. Manufactures and the large towns increased, but emigration was commencing, and some country villages were deserted.
Goldsmith sang:-
Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay;
Princes and lords may flourish or may fade,
A breath can make them, as a breath has made:
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
When once destroyed, can never be supplied.
And Dr. Price contended that there was an absolute decay of the population. This gave rise to a protracted controversy, which, in the critical state of the country, it was important to settle. The population of Great Britain was then enumerated in 1801, and amounted to 10,917,000, and with that of Ireland united with her, made above 16,000,000. This was a triumphant reply to the doubts of those who despaired of their country. Notwithstanding the war the population increased, as the census showed, at the rate of two to three millions every ten years until 1841. Then immense emigrations took place; there was a depopulating famine in Ireland, which had an imperfect poor law, and cholera was epidemic; yet the population of Great Britain was augmented by 2,308,000, and although the population of Ireland fell off, the people of the United Kingdom amounted to 27,724,000 in 1851. Since that date there have been great emigrations, and an epidemic of cholera; but the marriages have increased, the births have exceeded the deaths, and the mortality of the towns has been diminished by sanitary measures. An increase of the population may be expected; but its extent and the particular classes which have increased or declined - in towns or in the country - can only be determined by the census to be taken on the 8th of April. the "number of Souls," in the expressive language of the old writers, will then be known, and will remind the nation of the extent of the institutions for the advancement of education, religion, and justice, required to keep pace with its numbers. The information which the census supplies admits of innumerable practical applications. It is absolutely necessary for determining the state of the public health; and by pointing out the immense variations in the rate of mortality, and the intensity of dieases under different circumstances, will lend to the removal of the real causes of national suffering and decay. In the same way, by comparing the crimes committed by different classes of the population with their numbers, the prevalence of crime may be discovered and diminished; which, when criminals are no longer transported, is a matter of immense importance. The frequency with which reference is made in both houses of the legislature, at public boards, and municipal bodies, to the varying population of the towns, counties, and several divisions of the country, demonstrates the propriety of obtaining all the information accurately which the census supplies for public purposes. The census was taken by the legislators of antiquity, and by the practical Romans; it is now carried out in every civilized country. But the English census has in it some peculiarities. It has no connexion whatever with rates and taxes. there is nothing approaching to a poll-tax in England, and no one has anything to dread from the census inquiries. There is no conscription in England, and even the ballot for the militia is forgotten; the services by sea and by land being filled by volunteers. The inquiry elicits no real secrets, as the information asked of each man is known approximately to all his friends; and even in the delicate matter of years numbered by gentlemen, or even by ladies of a certain age, it is found, thaqt although many may look, they are never thought younger than they are by other people; so that to tell the truth is the right and the prudent course to pursue. The returns of age, and indeed the whole of the facts, it is officially announced, are to be treated as confidential, and neither to be used to a person's disadvantage nor to gratify "idle curiosity." Should the age of cooks, or of others, be found by any fatality standing still, or even retrograding, it should be corrected by their masters who fill in the return. In Rome, the working classes were not enumerated; in the Domesday-book, and even in some modern states, they are only counted by the head; but in England they are all taken down in the census-books by name, and treated precisely on the same footing as persons of the highest rank. Another peculiarity of the English census consists in its being taken by paid enumerators in one day. This is done to make the operation almost photographic, so that each individual may be counted only once; but it adds to the difficulty of this apparently simple but really complex and vast operation. England and Wales have been divided into 30,441 districts, to each of which an enumerator has been appointed, as well as 501 to the large public institutions. they work under 2,192 district registrars and 631 superintendent registrars. To each officer minute printed instructions, suggested by the experience of the last census, have been given by the registrar-general; and all have been supplied with appropriate books and schedules suitable to their districts through the Post-office, the railways, and the Parcels Delivery Company; and the papers thus distributed with strict regard to economy, weigh more than 45 tons. The enumerators are a highly respectable body, and include clergymen and many other professional men, who have undertaken the work from public motives. But the success of the operation depends not so much on the regsitrar-general, on his officers, or on the enumerators, as on the four or five million heads of families in every part of the land. Some of these, of course, are not in a position to understand the measure; and the co-operation of all the educated classes, particularly of the clergy, of medical men, and of public writers in the press, is indispensable to the complete success of the seventh census. If the influential classes of society will expend a part of the interval between this date and the 8th of April in explaining the measure, in disseminating information among the poorer classes, and in persuading them to furnish exact returns, the operation will undoubtedly be as successful as it was in 1851, when the census was taken without the infliction of a single fine under the penal clauses of the act of parliament.
Census-office, London, March 25
The following are the headings into which the form to be filled up is divided:
1.Name and Surname- No person absent on the night of Sunday, April 7th, to be entered here; except those who may be travelling or out at work during that night, and who return home on Monday, April 8th. Write after the name of the head of the family the names of his wife, children, and other relatives; then visitors, &c., and servants.
2.Relation to Head of Family- State whether wife, son, daughter, or other relative, visitor, boarder, &c., or servant.
3.Condition- Write either "married," "widower," "widow," or "unmarried," against the names of all persons except young children.
4.Sex- Write "M" against males, and "F" against females.
5.Age (Last Birthday)- For infants under one year, state the age in months, writing "under 1 month," "1 month," "2 months," &c.
6. Rank, Profession, or occupation.
7.Where Born- Opposite the names of those born in England, write the county, and town or parish. If born in Scotland, Ireland, the British Colonies, or the East Indies, state the country. If born in foreign parts state the country; and if also a British subject add "British subject," or "naturalised British subject," as the case may be.
8. If Deaf-and-Dumb or Blind- Write "Deaf-and-Dumb," or "Blind," opposite the name of the person; and if so from birth, add "from birth."
The following general instruction will accompany each form to be filled up by the occupier or person in charge of the dwelling. If the house is let or sublet to different families or lodgers, each occupier or lodger must make a return for his portion of the house upon a separate paper.
(Examples of the mode of filling up the return.)
Instructions for filling up the column headed "Rank, Profession, Occupation": The superior titles of peers and other persons of rank to be inserted, as well as any high office which they may hold. Magistrates, aldermen, and other important public officers, to state their profession after their official title.
Army and Navy- Add, after the rank, "Army," "Artillery," "Royal Navy," "Royal Engineers," "Marines," "East India Service," as the case may be. Officers on "half-pay," or "retired" to be described. chelsea, Greenwich and other pensioners, to be so designated.
Persons in the civil service to state the department to which they are attached after their rank; those on the superannuation list to be so distinguished.
Clergymen of the Church of England to return themselves as "Rector of -------," "Vicar of -------," "Curate of -------," &c., or "without cure of souls." They are requested to employ the indefinite term "clerk." Roman catholic priests, and ministers of foreign churches, to return themselves as such, and to state the name of the church or chapel in which they officiate. Dissenting ministers to return themselves as "Independent minister, of ------- Chapel," "Wesleyan minister, of ------- Chapel," &c. Local or occasional preachers must return their ordinary occupations, but may add, "Local Methodist Preacher," &c.
Legal Profession-Barristers to state whether or not in actual practice; officers of any court, &c., to state the description of office and name of court. The designation "attorney" or "solicitor" to be confined to those whose names are actually upon the Roll. Clerks in solicitors' offices should state whether solicitor's managing, articled, or general clerk.
Members of the medical profession to state the university, college, or hall, of which they are graduates, fellows, or licentiates; also whether they practise as physician, surgeon, dentist, oculist, general practitioner, &c., or are "not practising."
Professors, teachers, public writers, authors, and scientific men, to state the particular branch of science or literature which they teach or pursue; artists, the art which they cultivate. Graduates should enter their degrees in this column.
Persons engaged in commerce, as merchants, brokers, agents, commercial travellers, to state in all cases the particular kind of business in which they are engaged, or the staple in which they chiefly deal. members of the Stock Exchange, East India merchants, &c., may be so described.
Commercial Clerk- always add in what branch of business. (Note- Clerks in the civil service, and in solicitors' offices, should be distinguished as above directed.)
The term farmer to be applied only to the occupier of land. Example: "Farmer of 317 acres, employing 8 labourers and 3 boys;" the atual number of acres, and of men and boys employed on the farm, on April 8, being in all cases inserted. Sons or daughters employed at home or on the farm, may be returned- "Farmer's son," "farmer's daughter." Farm servants sleeping in the farmer's house must be described in his schedule as "carter," "dairymaid," &c., as the case may be.
An out-door labourer working on a farm must be described as "agricultural labourer," "shepherd," &c., as the case may be.
In trades, manufactures, or other business, the employer must, in all cases, be distinguished. Example: "Carpenter - master, employing 6 men and 2 boys;" inserting always the number of persons of the trade in his employ, if any, on April 8. In the case of firms, the number of persons employed should be returned by one partner only.
In the case of workers in mines or manufactures, and generally in the arts, the particular branch of work, and the material, are always to be distinctly expressed if they are not implied in the names, as in "coal-miner," "brass-founder," "silk-throwster." Where the trade is much sub-divided, both trade and branch are to be returned thus, "watchmaker-finisher;" "printer-compositor."
Artisans and mechanics should invariably state their particular branch of art or business.
Weaver should always write "silk," "wool," "worsted," "cotton," &c., before this general term, so as to express distinctly the material which he weaves, thus, "silk-weaver."
Messengers, porters, labourers, and servants, to be described according to the nature of their employment on the day of the census.
A person following more than one distinct business should insert his several occupations in the order of their importance.
Persons following no profession, trade, or calling, and holding no public office, but deriving their incomes chiefly from land, houses, mines, dividends, interest of money, annuities, &c., may designate themselves:- "Landed Proprietor," "Proprietor of Iron Mines," "Proprietor of Houses," "Fundholder," &c., as the case may be. Persons who have retired from business may be entered thus- "Retired Farmer," "Retired Grocer."
Persons in almshoues, after being described as such, should state their previous occupations.
Women and children to be entered according to the above instructions. The occupations of those who are regularly employed from home, or who follow any business at home, to be distinctly recorded. Against the names of children, daily attending school, or receiving regular tuition at home, write "Scholar."
The occupier is requested to insert the particulars specified, in compliance with an act which passed the House of Commons and the House of Lords, in the last session of parliament, and received the assent of her Majesty the Queen on the 6th of August 1860. This paper will be called for on Monday, April 8th, by the appointed enumerator, and it is desirable that the answers should be written in the proper columns by the morning of that day, in order that his progress may not be delayed. It will be his duty, under the act, to complete the return if it be defective, and to correct it if erroneous. Any person authorised by the occupier may write in the particulars if he is himself unable to do so.
Persons who refuse to give correct information are liable to a penalty of five pounds, besides the inconvenience and annoyance of appearing before two justices of the peace, and being convicted of having made a wilful mis-statement of age, or of any of the other particulars.
The facts will be published in general abstracts only, and strict care will be taken that the returns are not used for the gratifitaction of curiosity.
_________________
Mel
Searching for lost relatives? Win the Lottery!
|
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
