The

A few pretty large estates; but a considerable portion of the county is divided into small properties. Lands are let and managed in most respects similarly to those in Leitrim. There has been within these few years a very extraordinary extension of cultivation in Sligo and the contiguous portions of Leitrim. This is evinced by the rapid increase and great amount of the exports from the town of Sligo. In 1831, for example, the export of oats was 130,000 quarters; in 1832, 134,000; and in 1833, it had increased to 154,000. The export of wheat trebled within the three years ending with 1833; but even in the last-mentioned year only 3,127 quarters were exported. exports of butter and pork are also increasing rapidly and steadily; no fewer than 150,000 casks of the former, and 8,547 barrels of the latter, having been shipped in 1833. (Inglis's Ireland in 1834, vol. ii. p. 12.) It is true that the extension, and even the improvement, of tillage, is not always accompanied in Ireland with any thing like a corresponding improvement in the condition of the occupiers and peasantry; it is difficult, however, to suppose that exportation should be carried to so great an extent without acting favourably on both, and yet such would really seem to be the case. Here, as well as in Leitrim, the con-acre system has made much progress within the last 20 years. The competition for land is daily increasing; and the occupier of any overrented patch, that chooses to lease it, never fails to get a considerable sum for the "tenant's right." Average rent of land, 10s. 8d. an acre. Inhabitants in about the same condition as in Leitrim, or, perhaps, worse. Principal rivers, Sligo, Arrow, Awinmore, Esky, Moy, &c. It contains 6 baronies, and 39 parishes; and returns 3 members to parliament, being 2 for the county, and 1 for the borough of Sligo. Principal towns and population in 1831:- Sligo, 15,152; Ardnaree, 2,482. Population of county, in ditto, 171,765.

ISLANDS.

A great number of islands and islets lie along the south-west, west, and north-west coasts of Ireland; but there are very few off the east coast. Their distance from the mainland is, in most instances, inconsiderable. The largest of these islands, called Achill, or Eagle Island, from the number of eagles by which it is frequented, is situated on the west coast of Mayo, at the north-west extremity of Clew Bay. It contains about 22,000 acres, with a destitute population of about 4,000. It is mountainous and barren; and is separated from the mainland by a narrow channel, which is, in parts, fordable at low water. Clare Island, the south isles of Arran, at the mouth of Galway Bay, and Valentia Island, on the south side of Dingle Bay, are, after Achill, among the most considerable islands on the west coast. Their inhabitants, and those of the other islands, subsist partly by fishing and partly by agriculture. They use only the Irish language; are barely acquainted with the rudiments of civilisation; and are mostly in a state of extreme poverty. Rachlin Island, off the north coast of Ireland, is principally celebrated for its basaltic columns. (Ante, p. 346.) There are reckoned to be, in all, nearly 200 islands in the seas and bays (principally the latter) round Ireland, of which, from 130 to 140 are inhabited. Their population, which in

PART II.

POPULATION.

SECT. I. Population of England and Wales.

Races of Inhabitants. — THERE can be no reasonable doubt that Britain received its first inhabitants from the contiguous shores of the Continent. The best critics are of opinion that the original immigrants were Celts; being denominated Gael (Guydels of the Welsh), no doubt from their having passed over from Gaul. Αι some subsequent period these original immigrants were followed by the Cimbri, or Northern Celts.* It is believed that, after the invasion of the latter, a considerable portion of the Gaelic Celts emigrated to Ireland, where the Gaelic dialect of the Celtic language still predominates. But, however this may be, the Cimbric Celts seem to have obtained a complete ascendancy over their predecessors. Their descendants continue to this day to occupy the principality of Wales, where the Cymraig dialect of the Celtic language, "the genuine daughter of the ancient British spoken in the time of the Romans," is still in common use. The epoch of the Gothic immigration is not known; but, at a period which must have long preceded the Christian æra, the Goths, who are believed to have emigrated from the countries between the Black Sea and the Caspian, were in possession of the north-western parts of Germany and Gaul as far south as the Seine. That portion of the great Gothic family that settled in the Low Countries and the north of France, were called by the Romans, Belgæ, and are represented as a brave and warlike nation. (Cæsar, De Bello Gallico, lib. i. § 1.) From Gaul they passed over to Britain, where they occupied, when it was invaded by Julius Cæsar, its south-eastern and most fertile provinces. (De Bello Gallico, lib. v. § 12.) The Belgian colonists were, undoubtedly, the principal ancestors of the modern English nation. The Saxons, who invaded England after it had been abandoned by the Romans, were a congenerous race with its Belgic occupants. But the latter, enfeebled by being long subject to the Roman power, seem to have lost that valour for which they were once so conspicuous, and were easily subdued by the Saxons. There is, however, no reason to think that the latter came over in such numbers as to have been able fully to occupy the country, or to have given it a new language, had their own differed materially from that already in use in it. The population of all the eastern, southern, and more level part of the island

For proofs that the Cimbri were Celts, see Pinkerton's Dissertation on the Scythians, annexed to his Inquiry into the History of Scotland.

Percy's Introduction to the Translation of Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 5. There cannot, as the same learned writer, Pinkerton, and others have shown, be a doubt as to the identity of the ancient Britons and the Celtic Gauls. The French call Wales Pays de Galles, that is, country of the Gauls.

Pinkerton's Geography, vol. i. p. 20., ed. 1802,

may, therefore, be looked upon as having been at this period essentially Gothic, and as derived rather from the Belgian than the Saxon Goths.

The temporary conquest of England by the Danes, and its subsequent subjugation by the Normans, however important in other respects, made no sensible change in the stock of the inhabitants. The Normans, though long settled in France, where they had acquired the use of the French language, originally emigrated from Norway; and belonged, as well as the Danes, to the Gothic family. Except, therefore, in so far as we may suppose the Celtic and Belgic inhabitants to have been blended together, the Gothic blood would seem to have been preserved pretty pure in all the country to the north and east of the Severn and the Exe.

Within the last few years, however, an immigration has taken place into England, and also into Scotland, that has already had a great, and promises to have a still greater, influence over the blood and character of the people. We allude to the late extraordinary immigration of Irish, or Celtic, labourers into Great Britain. Considering the general want of employment, and the low rate of wages in Ireland, the temptation to emigrate to England is all but irresistible; and steam communication has reduced the expenses of transit to almost nothing; having established, as it were, floating bridges between Dublin and Liverpool, Belfast and Glasgow, Waterford and Bristol. In consequence, very many thousands of destitute Irish labourers have established themselves in Lancashire, Lanarkshire, and other places, principally on the west coast of England and Scotland. So great, indeed, has been this immigration, that at present, it is believed, about a fourth part of the population of Manchester and Glasgow consists either of native Irish, or of their descendants; and in various other places the proportion of Irish blood is still greater. Instead of being diminished, this influx, great as it has been, is progressively augmented; and threatens to entail very pernicious consequences on the people of England and Scotland. The wages of the latter are reduced by the competition of the Irish; and, which is still worse, their opinions as to what is necessary for their comfortable and decent subsistence are lowered by the contaminating influence of example, and by familiar intercourse with those who are content to live in filth and misery. It is difficult to see how, if things be allowed to continue on their present footing, the condition of the labouring classes in the two countries should not be pretty much approximated; and there is but too much reason to think that the equalisation will be brought about, rather by the degradation of the English than by the elevation of the Irish. Hitherto the latter have been very little, if at all, improved by their residence in England; but the English and Scotch with whom they associate have been certainly deteriorated. Though painful and difficult, the importance of the subject gives it the strongest claims on the public attention. It were better that measures should be adopted to check, if that be possible, the spread of pauperism in Ireland, and to improve the condition of its inhabitants; but, if this cannot be done, it seems indispensable that we

Having premised these few observations with respect to the races of men by which the kingdom has been peopled, we proceed to an inquiry more germane to statistics, or to investigate the amount of the population.

Progress of Population. The determination of the population of a country is one of the most important problems that can engage the attention of the statistician. There are various indirect methods by which its amount may be approximated with more or less accuracy; but it cannot be precisely ascertained otherwise than by making a census or enumeration of the inhabitants, under such precautions as may insure its correctness.

This, however, is a measure that cannot be carried into effect except by order of government, which has not always had the power, and has oftener wanted the inclination, to interfere for such purpose. In this country, no census was taken previously to 1801; and our knowledge of the amount of the population at antecedent periods becomes proportionally vague, the further we recede from this recent æra. It has been concluded, from the enumeration in Domesday Book, that there were, at the æra of the Conquest, 300,785 families, or (at 5 individuals to a family) 1,504,925 persons, in England. Wales, however, and the 4 northern counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, Durham, and Lancaster, are excepted from this enumeration. And allowing for these, and other omissions, perhaps the entire population of England and Wales, at the æra in question, may have amounted to 2,150,000, or thereabouts. *

In 1377, a poll tax of 4d. was imposed on every lay person, whether male or female, of 14 years of age, mendicants only excepted; and it appears that 1,367,239 † persons paid this assessment, exclusive of those in Wales, Chester, and Durham, which do not appear in the roll. But besides these, there must, no doubt, have been very many omissions in the counties of which we have the assessments; so that it is plain, little or no authentic information, as to the state of the population, can be learned from this document. Mr. Chalmers has, however, concluded that the population of England and Wales was, at the epoch in question, about 2,350,000; and perhaps this is not very wide of the mark; but the data are obviously too loose and unsatisfactory to enable any one to pronounce with any certainty with respect to it. (Chalmers's Comparative Estimate, p. 13., ed. 1802.)

The dreadful pestilence that raged in 1349, is said to have dispeopled England of more than half its inhabitants. This, however, is, most probably, a very exaggerated statement; but if the mortality amounted to a third, it is hardly possible it could have been filled up by the year 1377. No doubt, however, the increase in the rate of wages consequent to the pestilence, and which the Statute of Labourers (passed after the mortality had subsided) vainly attempted to prevent, must have given a considerable stimulus to the principle of increase, and materially

Mr. Turner thinks that the population of England only, at the epoch of the Conquest, exceeded two millions. — (Hist. of Anglo-Saxons, 5th ed. vol. iii. p. 258.) + This is the sum obtained by adding together the items on the record: the ota stated in it is 1,376,442.

augmented the proportion of children to adults; so that it is probable they amounted to considerably more than a third part of the entire population, at which they are estimated by Mr. Chalmers. The small population of several of the great towns, as deduced from this subsidy roll, would seem to show pretty conclusively that, in 1377, the country had not recovered from the pestilence of 1349; and that the population was then under its average amount. London, for example, is said to have contained only 35,000 inhabitants in 1377, Bristol under 10,000, Norwich under 6,000, and so on. These statements seem to be quite inconsistent with the most authentic evidence as to the extent, importance, and wealth of these cities in the 14th century; and there would consequently appear to be little doubt, unless we suppose some great error to have insinuated itself into the subsidy roll, that the cities referred to had not recovered in 1377 from the preceding mortality.-(See Paper by Mr. Amyot, Archæologia, vol. xx.) In 1528, commissioners were appointed for taking an account of the stock and grain throughout the kingdom; and fragments of these returns, for certain districts in Wilts, Essex, and Kent, have been preserved, along with a statement of the number of their inhabitants. The districts in question contained, at the above-mentioned epoch, a population of 16,425, while in 1831 the population of the same districts was 52,392. If we suppose this rate of increase to have been uniform throughout the kingdom, the population in 1528 will be found to be 4,356,000. But it is needless to say that no safe inferences can be deduced from facts and inferences of the kind now alluded to.

Harrison and Sir Walter Raleigh state the number of fighting men, in 1575 and 1583, at 1,172,000. But there is no reason to think that this estimate was made with any thing like due care; and unless of which there is no evidence it included all the able-bodied individuals between certain specified ages, it affords very slender means from which to deduce the actual amount of population at the time. Perhaps, however, we may infer from it, that the population was not then much above, nor much below, five millions. Notwithstanding the influence of the civil wars in the reign of Charles II., there can be little doubt that the population increased considerably during the seventeenth century, particularly in the period between the Restoration and the Revolution; but, unfortunately, we have no means of estimating this increase, nor even of deciding on sure grounds as to the amount of the population at the accession of William III. Previously, indeed, to the Revolution, a hearth tax, proportioned to the number of fireplaces in each, was payable by all houses in the kingdom; and the celebrated political arithmetician, Gregory King, availing himself of the returns obtained under this tax, framed an estimate of the population in 1696, entitled to much more attention than any of those by which it was preceded. King found that the number of houses in the books of the Hearth Office, in 1690, was 1,319, 215. But the hearth duty being charged on the tenant, the divided houses stand in this account as so many separate dwellings; and deducting for these, and for uninhabited houses, smiths' shops, &c., and allowing for the increase in the preceding