Territorial Distribution and Subdivision
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The population of England consists of several thousands of small communities; which are associated together more or less intimately by vicinity, and by common interests, duties, or rights. The populations of parishes or places are distinguished in the volume; and a certain number of these places are parts of cities, or constitute municipal boroughs which have legally defined boundaries. Many of them are market towns, others are such aggregations of houses as are commonly called on that account towns, without having yet any other elements of union, except the. ordinary parish organization. It is difficult to distinguish these small growing towns from villages and hamlets; and the line of separation cannot be drawn between them by any definite rule. The area of the small towns can only be determined approximatively; but the.density of population is so distinguishing a feature of towns, that, in the absence of better methods, the rules in the note to Table 45 were followed in a certain number of cases. 781 towns, of which the names are given at the foot of the table, contained 10,960,998 inhabitants; while the villages and country parishes contained 9,105,226, a large population in itself, and exceeding indeed in number the whole population of England and Wales in 1801, but less by 1,855,772 than the population of the towns in 1861.1
The English nation then, without losing its hold on the country, and still largely diffused over 37 million acres of territory, has assumed the character of a preponderating city population. It enjoys the advantages of the cities of the ancient world in the proximity of its citizens for intercourse, for defence, for counsel, for production, and for the interchange of commodities; for rapidly as the population has increased, it has not kept pace with the progress of industry and wealth. The area which the 781 towns covered was 2,991 square miles; while the area of the rest of the country was 55,330 square miles. [The area of the 781 towns was equivalent to 7,745 square kilometers. The average area of each town was 9.9, nearly 10 square kilometers, or 992 hectars.2
] There were 10,960,998 people living on 2,991 square miles, and 9,105,226 people Comparative living on 55,330 square miles. The average population of a town is 14,035; and the average size is represented by country a square of two miles (1.957) to the side, or a circle of 1.1 mile to the radius. The people are distributed unequally, but the mean town density is expressed by 3,665 persons to a square mile, 5.73 persons to an acre. And upon the hypothesis of equal distribution the people live at a mean distance of three quarters of a mile (736 mile) from the centre. In the country around the towns the people are scattered; there are nearly 4 acres (3.89) to a person, 165 persons to a square mile. But the towns are so distributed over the kingdom that every part of the country enjoys some of their advantages. Thus the kingdom is divided into 781 portions, in each of which there is a town. And the mean area of the districts of which the town is the centre is 75 square miles; so they are equal to circles of a radius of 4.875 miles; and on an average the distance of districts from centre to centre is 9.286 miles. The mean distance of the population of such a district from the centre is upon the hypothesis of equal distribution 3¼ miles. 580 towns were distinguished in 1851, and the population in them and in the surrounding country was nearly equal. But in the subsequent ten years, while the population in the villages and the country around increased by half a million (584,548), the population in the 580 towns increased by a million and half (1,554,067). The increase of the population of the country parishes is 6.5 per cent., and of the towns 17.3 per cent. The difference in the rates of increase is due to migration from country to town. Three-fourths of the total increase of population has taken place in the towns. There are seventy-two towns in England of an average population of 106,495, none of them having less than twenty thousand inhabitants. Their population in 1801 was 2,221,753, 4,225,958 in 1831, and 7,667,622 in 1861. The rates of increase varied to a great extent; thus Birkenhead on the south side of the Mersey had 667 inhabitants at the beginning of the century, and 51,649 in 1861; Canterbury had at the same dates 9,000 and 21,324 inhabitants. The population of York grew from 16,846 to 40,433; of Bradford from 13,264 to 106,218. In population, next to London stands Liverpool (443,938), and Manchester (357,979) in the north-west; Birmingham (296,076) in the Midland counties; Leeds (207,165), and Sheffield (185,172) in Yorkshire; and Bristol in the west (154,093). In the vicinity of these large cities, and beyond their boundaries, are often towns and populous districts which are in constant relation with them. Thus Salford is almost as closely associated with Manchester as Southwark is with London. London still maintains its pre-eminence as the metropolis of the empire, of which it amply expresses the growth. Its population was 958,863 in 1801, and 2,803,989 in 1861. The increase in the population of London during this century was 1,845,126, and the increase in the other seventy-one large towns and cities was 3,600,743; making the aggregate increase of the population of the great towns 5,445,869. The increase in the towns of less than twenty thousand inhabitants as well as in villages and in the country was 5,727,819. While the actual increase was greater, the annual rate of increase (1.039 per cent.) was less in the country and in the small towns than it was in the great towns (2.085). The velocity at which the great towns increase is double the rate at which the rest of the population increases. We have formed six groups of towns to show the rates of increase of each class, exclusive of London. The county and assize towns increased in the ten years since 1851 at the rate of 1.39 annually; the manufacturing towns at the rate of 1.35, the towns where silk and woollen goods and gloves were made increasing most slowly, the towns famous for cotton, stockings, shoes, and strawplait, increasing most rapidly; the inland watering places, Cheltenham, Bath, Leamington, and Tunbridge Wells increased slowly, those on the coast much more rapidly. The increase of population was most rapid in the seaport towns, and in the towns amidst the mining districts where hardware is made. In that direction the tide of national industry has recently flowed. Placing a person on each square yard, 3097,600 persons might stand upon a square mile, and if the whole population of England were mustered they might stand upon an area a mile deep and 6½ miles (6.478) long. It has been shown that the people are unequally distributed over the kingdom; but if we assume them by hypothesis to be equally distributed over the 58,321 miles of territory, there will be 344 persons to each square mile. And it is usual in this case to say that the density of the population is such that there are 344 persons to a square mile, or 1 person to 1.86 acres. The mean proximity is 102 yards upon the same hypothesis, and that is the mean proximity of person to person. For the sake of comparison with other countries, and in conformity with the recommendations of the Statistical Congress, we state these facts in the metrical measures. Thus the specific population is 133 to a square kilometer; 1.33 persons to a hectar; and the mean proximity is 93 meters. The origin and distinctive character of the various territorial divisions of the country, ancient and modern, were elucidated and described in the Report on the Census of 1851. It will be sufficient now to notice the principal changes that have occurred in these divisions during the last ten years. By far the most important recent measure bearing upon this subject is the Metropolis Local Management Act (18 & 19 Vict. c. 120), which was introduced in 1855 by Sir Benjamin Hall (Lord Llanover), then First Commissioner of Public Works, and received the Royal Assent on the 14th August in that year. Although in the administration of its internal affairs the City of London has for many years rested on a basis which has practically secured for its inhabitants a representation of their interests and wishes,—a result ascribed in a great measure to the mode in which the Common Council is elected,3
—the advantages of local government were confined to the narrow area included within the City proper, and the extensive outer area beyond was, until the introduction of this new enactment, for the most part excluded from their operation. By this statute, however, a municipal organization has been given to an area comprising, with the City, upwards of 123 square miles, a population in 1861 amounting to 2,809,004, and an annual rental of 12,514,053/.4
The limits of "the Metropolis" have been defined from time to time in Acts of Parliament and by various authorities for certain specified purposes. One of the earliest examples of such a district was that first included within the Weekly Bills of Mortality, or weekly reports of the parish clerks relative to christenings and burials, established about the year 1592-3, in consequence of the prevalence of the plague in London. Additional parishes figured from time to time in the bills, but subsequently to 1726 no actual addition was made to the area which they embraced.5
The parishes of Marylebone, St. Pancras, Paddington, Chelsea, and Kensington were not within the Bills, but Mr. Rickman considered it proper to include them within the "Metropolis" in the Census Abstracts 1801 to 1831. To this area several additions were made by the Registrar-General on the establishment of the new weekly tables of mortality in London in 1840, bringing in the parishes of Camberwell, Bow, Hammersmith, Fulham, and others, together with the parishes comprised in the Greenwich Union. A further addition was made in 1844 of the parishes in the Wandsworth and Clapham Union; and three years later were added those in the Lewisham Union, and the parish of Hampstead. During the last sixteen years these limits have remained unaltered, but extensive as they are, it must be admitted that several suburban localities, now inhabited chiefly by persons engaged in business or employments in London, are excluded.6
The district of the Registrar-General was adopted, with the addition of the hamlet of Penge,7
as the District of the Metropolis Local Management Act. Under the powers conferred by this comprehensive measure, provisions contained in several hundreds of local Acts by which the metropolitan parishes without the City were governed in matters affecting drainage, paving, lighting, &c., have been for the most part superseded, and an effectual system of local management has been introduced. The twenty-three larger parishes have a separate system of administration under vestries, and the other parishes and places are grouped in districts, which are managed by district boards. The number of vestrymen to be elected for each parish is dependent on the number of rated householders, and in the case of combined parishes the district board is elected by the vestries. A body called the Metropolitan Board of Works is constituted, members being elected by the Corporation of London, the vestries of the larger parishes, and the district boards. The Metropolitan Board is charged with the maintenance of the main sewers, and with the execution of works for intercepting sewage from the Thames, and is empowered to make orders for maintaining the main and general sewerage, naming streets, and numbering houses, for preserving the regular line of buildings, and for other objects. The Board is also authorized to make, widen, and otherwise improve streets, and to effect other objects of public benefit, subject in certain cases to the approval of the Commissioners of Her Majesty's "Works, or to the sanction of Parliament. The principal functions of the vestries and district boards are to maintain existing local sewers and construct new ones with the approval of the Metropolitan Board; and various powers are conferred upon them for enforcing house drainage, abating nuisances, and regulating the paving, lighting, watering, cleansing, and improving the parishes and districts. Powers are also given to these bodies to levy a sewers rate, a general rate, and in some parishes or parts a lighting rate. Borrowing powers are given to the Metropolitan Board and to the vestries and district boards; and provision is made for auditing the accounts. It could not be expected that an Act dealing with so great a variety of interests and affecting the provisions of so many local Acts should be free from defects. Two Acts have already been passed to amend its provisions, and it is not improbable that experience will point out the necessity for other amendments.8
In order to carry out the principle of local representation, the Act requires that parishes containing more than 2,000 rated householders shall be divided into wards, and further provides that if at any Census the relative number of inhabited houses in such wards is found to have varied from those shown by the previous Census, the number of vestrymen may be altered. We have therefore ascertained, not without considerable difficulty owing to the boundaries being little known in the localities, the number of inhabited houses and the population in each of the wards constituted under the Act, thus establishing a standard for comparison when the results of the next Census shall be ascertained.9
(See Appendix, Table 334, p. 223.) A return is also printed showing the number of inhabited houses and the population in 1851 and 1861, with the annual value in January 1862 of property assessed, in the several parishes and places within the district of the Metropolitan Board of Works.10
The district of the Metropolitan Police is much more extensive than that of the Metropolitan Board of Works; it extends over the whole of Middlesex (exclusive of the City of London) and the surrounding parishes in the counties of Surrey, Kent, Essex, and Hertford, of which any part is within 12 miles from Charing Cross, and those also parts of which are wholly within 15 miles in a straight line from the same point, comprising an area of 439,770 statute acres, equal to 687 square miles, and a population of 3,110,654 souls. The City of London, in the midst of the district, includes an area of 1.13 square miles, with 112,063 resident inhabitants.11
A striking anomaly in the territorial arrangement of England has existed in the large number of places not included within the limits of any parish, thence called extra-parochial, and which have in consequence enjoyed a virtual exemption from burdens borne by the rest of the community. These places are found usually to have been the sites of religious houses, or of ancient castles, the owners of which were able in former times to prevent any interference on the part of the civil authorities within their limits; the royal forests, and some tracts of land acquired in recent times either by reclamation from the sea or by the drainage of fens also possessed similar immunities. They were exempt from maintaining the poor, because there were no overseers upon whom a magistrate's order could be served, and in escaping the poor rate they avoided the other local charges now incorporated with that rate; in fact they had a chance of escaping from direct taxation of every kind, while their inhabitants were virtually exempt from many civil duties and offices served by others for the benefit of the community. The Act "to provide for the Relief of the Poor in Extra-parochial Places"
(20 Vict. c. 19), which was introduced by Her Majesty's Government and passed in 1857, is intended to remedy this defect, and to remove the just cause of complaint arising from an unreasonable exemption of particular localities from certain general laws. Under the provisions of this Statute, all extra-parochial places entered separately in the Report on the Census of 1851 are to be deemed Parishes,
"for all the purposes of the assessment to the poor rate, the relief of the poor, the county, police, or borough rate, the burial of the dead, the removal of nuisances, the registration of parliamentary or municipal voters, and the registration of births and deaths," and the Justices of the Peace having jurisdiction are to appoint overseers; and with respect to all other places being or reputed to be extra-parochial, such Justices may
appoint overseers. Where, however, the owners and occupiers of two-thirds in value of the land desire to annex any extra-parochial place to an adjoining parish, the Justices may, with the consent of such parish, make an order of annexation accordingly. In pursuance of the Act, out of 598 extra-parochial places (or places reputed to be such), reported by the Clerks to the Boards of Guardians of the several Poor Law Unions as situated within or adjoining the respective unions, 341 had been dealt with to 1st August 1862, overseers having been appointed by the Justices for 327 of such places which have now become parishes; while in 14 instances the places have been annexed to adjoining parishes. Three of the Inns of Court, and the Charter-House, London, being somewhat peculiarly situated, are specially provided for by the Act, which assigns the duties of overseer to the person filling a certain office for the time being.12
Under the Act for the better management of highways in England (25 & 26 Vict. c. 61.), a new set of county divisions is in the course of formation for applying the principle of unions of parishes which has worked so advantageously under the New Poor Law. By this statute power is given to Justices in general or quarter sessions to issue orders for dividing their county into highway districts, to consist of parishes and places not comprised within the jurisdiction of boards constituted under other Acts. Waywardens are to be annually elected for the parishes in each district, to form, with the Justices acting therein, a Board or corporate body, with power to acquire and hold lands, to appoint officers, and to perform all other necessary acts in relation to maintaining and keeping in repair the highways; the salaries of the treasurer, clerk, and district surveyor are to be charged on a district fund, to which the several parishes are to contribute in proportion to the average expenditure incurred during the three preceding years; but the expense of maintaining the highways of each parish is to be a separate charge on such parish. As the Act came into effect only on 1st January 1863, we are unable to state what progress has been made in the formation of the new highway districts. Eleven towns have received Charters of Incorporation since 1851, namely, Aberavon, Brighton, Burnley, Dewsbury, Hanley, Margate, Middlesborough, Rochdale, Staly-
bridge, Wrexham, and Yeovil. The municipal boundaries of the borough of Salford have been extended, and made co-extensive with those of the parliamentary borough; those of Stockton have also been enlarged by the Stockton Extension and Improvement Act, 1852. Upon the redistribution of the four seats in the House of Commons, which became vacant by the disfranchisement of Sudbury and St. Albans, the new parliamentary borough of Birkenhead was constituted, and one member assigned to it. The West Riding of Yorkshire was divided into Northern and Southern Divisions, each to return two members, after the present Parliament; and an additional member was assigned to the Southern Division of Lancashire.13
With respect to corporate towns and boroughs returning or contributing to return members to Parliament, the returns required by the Census Act have been prepared with little difficulty, the boundaries being clearly defined, and well known to the local officers; but in the case of towns not having boundaries for municipal or parliamentary purposes it was not easy to establish a satisfactory basis for the returns of houses and population naturally looked for in the Census Tables. It became necessary to determine what places were entitled to be deemed town,
, and then to ascertain which of them had recognized boundaries applicable to the particular object in view. On the first point we consulted the Clerk of the Peace and the Chief Constable in each county, by whom we were supplied with lists of the places reputed to be towns; and from the Superintendent Registrars we obtained information as to the nature of the existing boundaries, if any. It was found that the towns in question might be classed under three heads:— The towns with defined limits comprised many for which boundaries had been settled under the Public Health Act (1848), the Local Government Act (1858), and various Acts for local purposes, such as improvement, police, lighting, paving, drainage, &c. As the official return of the population of a town is regarded, for obvious reasons, a matter of importance by its inhabitants, we were anxious to adopt effective measures for securing correct information for our guidance. We therefore consulted Lieutenant-Colonel Leach, R.E., Assistant Tithe Commissioner, and Mr. Ranger, C.E., Inspector under the Local Government Act, as to the best mode of proceeding, and upon their advice we determined upon adopting, as far as possible, recognized and defined boundaries wherever they were at all suitable for the object in view, and in the case of towns without legally defined boundaries, or where the boundaries were inapplicable, to follow the course pursued in 1851, namely, to instruct the local Registrars and Superintendent Registrars to define, with the assistance of the parochial officers, the limits proper to be taken as the basis of a return of the population, and to give the numbers upon their authority. Accordingly in the Tables will be found returned, in addition to 245 parliamentary boroughs and 208 corporate cities and boroughs, 281 towns, not being boroughs, each containing upwards of 2,000 inhabitants.14
Under the Local Government Act, 1858, places which have not yet acquired the legal character of towns may have a boundary settled for them, on petition to the Secretary of State, for the purposes of that Act; and as the expense attending its adoption is insignificant, the number of towns, strictly so called, will probably be considerably increased before the next Census. The population within the ancient parochial divisions of the country is accurately ascertained at each Census, but it is obviously of great importance to know also the actual or at least the approximate number of inhabitants in each of the numerous Ecclesiastical Districts or New Parishes which have been constituted under the authority of various Acts of Parliament during the last thirty years. According to the theory of the parochial system of the Established Church of England, the clergyman is bound by solemn engagements to advance the temporal and spiritual welfare of the portion of the community among whom his residence is fixed, and he is responsible for the performance of the necessary clerical duties within a given area. Whether this theory is carried out in actual practice or not, it is essential to the efficient discharge of his duties that the clergyman should have the means of informing himself from time to time as to the number of souls within his district; and, as might be expected, one of the first questions asked by any of the great societies, like the Pastoral Aid Society, the Additional Curates' Society, and the Church Building Society, whose object it is to lessen the amount of spiritual destitution, has reference to the amount of population. For almost every new church there is a district, either legally assigned by the bishop of the diocese or the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, or adopted conventionally for purposes of temporary convenience and having no legal force or effect; but the districts which are merely conventional do not fall within the scope of the Census Act. Unfortunately the precise limits of the legal districts are only imperfectly known to the public and in some instances to the incumbents themselves, especially when the latter are new clergymen, who have failed to obtain from their predecessors correct information on the subject. These essential details being so difficult of attainment, it will be readily conceived that the task of setting out the population of upwards of eighteen hundred of these ecclesiastical districts was a very laborious one; nor can it be a matter of surprise that the numbers returned to us, although in every instance submitted to the examination of the incumbents previous to publication, are in some cases approximative rather than strictly accurate.15
Since 1856, the functions of the Commissioners for Building New Churches have been merged in those of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, the latter body and the bishops being now the sole authorities empowered to assign legal districts to churches, where this is not done by special Act of Parliament. From the commencement of the Church Building Commission in 1818 to its termination on 31st December 1856, the total number of districts assigned under the Church Building Acts, and the parish of Manchester Division Act, 1850, was 1,077; and subsequently, under the same Acts, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners had assigned 235 additional districts to 31st October 1861.16
The districts and new parishes constituted under "The New Parishes Acts" to the date of the Census amounted to 284. In addition, there are the districts assigned by the bishops, making the total number returned in the detailed Tables 1,822. In 1851 the number was 1,254; the increase, as might be expected, has occurred chiefly in the dioceses of London, Manchester, Lichfield, Ripon, Winchester, and Chester. In 1856 the Act of 19 & 20 Vict. c. 104. (commonly known as Lord Blandford's Act) was passed, for the creation from time to time of new parishes for all ecclesiastical purposes, with the same status as those created under Sir R. Peel's Act of 1843. The Act comes into operation on the avoidance of the living of the mother parish or sooner; and it is expected that the removal of many anomalies will be effected through its operation. The laws relating to the militia may be said to affect directly or indirectly every man in the country. At the present time the militia force for England and Wales is fixed at 80,000 men, who could be called out and embodied upon a short notice; and this national army is now a body of volunteers. But in order to meet the contingency of a falling off in voluntary enlistment, a machinery is provided for procuring a sufficient number of men by means of the ballot. In the several counties Sub-divisions of Lieutenancy have been constituted for the purpose of raising the militia quotas; provision has also been made for the making of lists of men liable to serve, and for the balloting and enrolling of men to supply vacancies. The Acts authorizing these proceedings being suspended only, they may be put in force at any time by Order in Council. It would be inexpedient to make use of the returns obtained at the Census for any special object connected with the ballots for the militia, even were the details sufficiently recent and exact to be so employed, but no reasonable objection can be urged to the employment of such information for n
general purpose. Accordingly, we have included in the Tables a statement of the number of persons of each sex in the several sub-divisions of lieutenancy, which in many counties are identical with the Petty Sessional Divisions. Assuming the exempted classes to be pretty equally distributed, the total male population will afford a basis for computing the proportionate number of militiamen to be raised in each sub-division.17
The provision contained in the Militia Act of 1852, for making, when deemed expedient, these sub-divisions conterminous with the Superintendent Registrars' Districts or Poor Law Unions, has not hitherto been acted upon, chiefly on account of the inconvenience which, it is supposed, might arise from many of the districts being composed of parts of two or more counties. During the last ten years eleven New Poor Law Unions and Superintendent Registrars' Districts have been formed, either by the severance of parishes from large unions (as in the case of Birkenhead, taken from the Wirral Union), or by bringing into unions parishes previously in Gilbert's incorporations, or under the Act of Elizabeth. Under the Registration Act the Superintendent Registrars' Districts are liable to be altered from time to time when any changes are made in the Poor Law Divisions. As, however, the Tables show the population both in 1851 and 1861, within the present
limits, it is unnecessary to particularize the changes which have occurred.18
Before quitting the subject of our territorial divisions it may be useful to point out how necessary it is, when citing the population of a place, to state explicitly what limits are referred to. For example, the term "Manchester" may mean the parish, the township, the parliamentary borough, the municipal borough, the Registration or Poor Law District, or the town in a popular sense, including suburban places. A want of precision in speaking of places which give name to several local sub-divisions not unfrequently leads to mistakes, and when such places are compared with others, without proper care being taken to apply the comparison to corresponding boundaries, erroneous inferences are drawn. Only recently a claim was put forth on behalf of Glasgow as the second city in the British Islands; but to establish this claim "Glasgow," in its widest popular sense, including the suburban villages on both sides of the Clyde, was compared with Liverpool and with Manchester, strictly so called, and within borough limits. When the same view is taken of all three, and the population in the outlying suburbs of the Lancashire boroughs is added, it is found that the western capital of Scotland may claim to rank in point of population as the fourth
and not as the second city in the United Kingdom. 1
The population of England and Wales in 1801 was 8,892,536, exclusive of its share of the army, navy, and merchant seamen abroad. 2
The meter is longer than the English yard, and a square of 100 meters to the side is a hectar (land measure), while a square of 1,000 meters to the side is a square kilometer. We give the metric measures in conformity with the decisions of the International Statistical Congress. 3
Report of Commissioners appointed in 1853 to inquire into the state of the Corporation, p. 12. 4
See Table showing houses, population, and annual value of property in the district of the Metropolitan Board of Works, Population Tables, 1861, Vol. I. p. 223. 5
The only additions, after the year 1636 (with the exception of the parish of St. Mary-le-Strand, added in 1726,) were the new parishes which had been taken out of ancient parishes; for example, in 1729 St. George Iianover Square appears for the first time, but it had previously been included as part of the parish of St. Martin-n-the-Fields. Thus the area within the old bills of mortality was not increased after 1726, although the names of eleven newly-formed parishes appeared subsequently from time to time in the bills. See Population Tables, 1851. – Numbers of the inhabitants. Division I., pp. 38-45. 6
The circumstance that entire Superintendent Registrar's districts or Unions have, for the sake of convenience, been included in the Registrar-General's limits, may account for the exclusion of the parish of West Ham, which contains the populous suburb of Stratford. That parish is part of a Superintendent Registrar's District extending too far into Essex to be properly included, as a whole, within the boundary of "London." It is, however, a defect in the present boundary that it extends much further eastward on the south side of the River Thames, below Woolwich, than on the north side, where it terminates at Blackwall. 7
Penge is a detached hamlet of Battersea parish in the Croydon Union, no portion of which is within the district of the Registrar-General. 8
See a concise abstract of the chief provisions of the Acts in the introduction to the Metropolis Local Management Acts
, by E. H. Woolrych, Esq., one of the Metropolitan Police Magistrates. By the Thames Embankment Act, 25 & 26 Vict. c. 93., the execution of one of the most important undertakings required for the improvement of the Metropolis, viz., the Thames Embankment, has been confided to the Metropolitan Board. 9
The 41st section of the amending Act, 25 & 20 Vict. c. 102., is intended to provide for the division of a parish into wards where the population has increased since the passing of the original Act so as to exceed the limit of 2,000 rated householders; the terms employed, however, suggest a difficulty, as the wards may be formed only "when at any time, upon any account taken of the population by the authority of Parliament," any such parish "shall be found to contain more than 2,000 rated householders,"—the number of rated householders
not being amongst the matters comprised within the Census inquiry. 10
Population Tables, 1861, Vol. I. p. 223. 11
See Population Tables, 1861, Vol. I. p. 224. 12
See Memorandum respecting the operation of the Extra-parochial Places Act, by W. C. Glen, Esq., of the Poor.Law Board, Population Tables, 18G1, Vol. I. p. XX xiii. 13
Act of 24 & 25 Vict. c. 112. 14
Population Tables, Vol. I., Summary Tables, No. IX., p. XX i. At the London Session of the International Statistical Congress it was agreed that places not containing a strictly urban population of 2,000 and upwards might conveniently be omitted in Tables relating to towns. —Report on Statistical Congress
, p. 150. 15
The following extract relating to one of the sub-districts of Liverpool will exemplify the difficulties to be encountered. The Registrar was required to distinguish the municipal wards and the ecclesiastical districts. As another example, we have to mention that Mr. Marshall, the Superintendent Registrar of Ely, has called our attention to an error in vol. I. p. 10, of the Population Tables. The "special district" of Ely, which was in 1861 separately rated for the purpose of drainage, water supply, sewerage, and lighting, had then, according to him, 6,179 inhabitants. This number, to be substituted for the other (7,428), differs little from that given in 1851. 16
House of Commons Papers, No. 557, Sess. 1861, and No. 267, Sess. 1862. The 1,312 Ecclesiastical Districts assigned under the Church Building Acts include 40 distinct and separate parishes, 81 district parishes, 81 consolidated chapelry districts, 846 district chapelries, 120 particular districts, 58 districts under "The Parish of Manchester Division Act, 1850," and 1 church endowed under 7 and 8 Geo. 4. c. 72. s. 3. 17
The persons liable to serve in the militia are those between the ages of 18 and 35; but the following, amongst others, are exempt: —army, navy, marines, and members of any corps of yeomanry or volunteers; resident members of the universities, clergymen, ministers of registered places of worship, attorneys, constables, and other peace officers, articled clerks, apprentices, seamen or seafaring men, artificers in H.M. dockyards, ordnance artificers, and "any poor man who has more than one child born in wedlock." See 43d sect, of 42 Geo. 3. c. 90. 18
The 11 New Poor Law Unions, &c. and Superintendent Registrars' Districts since 1851 are —Bedwelty, Birkenhead, Dulverton, Gower, Great Ouseburn, Hartlepool, Kirkdeighton, Mile End Old Town, Wetherby, Wharfedale, and Whitchurch.II.—TERRITORIAL DISTRIBUTION AND SUBDIVISION.
1. Towns.
Difficulty of defining a town
Town and country population
Area of 781 towns
Comparative density of town and country population
Increase of population in the 580 towns distinguished in 1851
The 72 largest towns
Rates of increase of town population
Table 52
2. Density and Proximity
Density and proximity
3. Changes in Territorial Divisions
Territorial divisions
Area and population under Metropolis Local Management Act
Limits of the Metropolis included within the Weekly Bills of Mortality
Metropolitan Board of Works
Vestries and district boards
Wards in Metropolitan parishes
Metropolitan police district
Extra-parochial Places Act
Highway districts
New municipal boroughs
Additional seats in Parliament
Towns not being boroughs
Principle adopted in stating the population of towns not being boroughs
Ecclesiatical Districts
Number of Ecclesiastical Districts and New Parishes
Lord Blandford's Act
15 & 16 Vict. C. 50
Ecclesiastical District
Population
Mount Pleasant Sub-district
Population 47,410
{
Abercromby Ward,
Population 24,944
{
St. Saviour, part of
1,292
St. Catherine
9,679
St. Silas, part of
5,160
St. David, part of
2,267
In conventional Districts:
Workhouse
2,420
Residue
4,126
Rodney St. Ward,
Population 22,466
{
St. Saviour, part of
3,323
St. David, part of
5,175
St. Bride
3,954
St. Philip
508
St. Mark, part of
3,497
Residue
6,009