These bills would afford the means of ascertaining the state of population with sufficient precision, if the proportion of annual deaths to the number of the living could be accurately determined. This, however, previous to the enumeration of 1801, could not be easily found, even in the metropolis, the population (v which, as deduced from the bills of mortality, was very differently stated by different writers. Mr. John Graunt, who first pub lished observations on the London bills of mortality in the year 1662, made the proportion dying annually about 1 in 27. Sir William Petty and Dr. Brakenridge afterwards stated it as 1 in 30, and Mr. Maitland 1 in 244, but Dr. Price, who be stowed much attention on this subject, has shown that about the year 1769, at least 1 in 224 of all the inhabitants of London died annually. In fact. the pro portion appears to have varied consider ably at different periods, and of late years, in consequence of the houses being less crowded with inhabitants, the widening of streets and other improvements, the metropolis has become more healthy, and consequently the proportion dying an nually less than formerly. In the " Ob servations on the results of the Popula tion Act," it is stated that the propcm.
tion of annual deaths in London, in the year 1750, appears to have been 1 in 23, and in the year 1801, only 1 in 31.
The following statement of the average of each five years, from 1730, will sliew a considerable decrease in the annual number of burials, and an increase of the christenings, which strongly indicate the progressive increase of the population of the metropolis ; the proportion of an nual deaths to 100 christenings likewise shews that they have approached so near ly to an equality, that the population of London can now nearly support itself, without an annual supply from the coun try.
that about 5000 of them may be attributed to the metropolis, and a large portion of the rest may be ascribed to the other great towns, and to Wales, where the re gisters are less regularly kept than in Eng land. In Scotland, registers of mortality
have not yet been generally established ; and those which are kept, are, in many instances, very incomplete.
The total annual amount of burials, as collected pursuant to the population act, authorizes a'satisfactory inference of di minishing mortality in England since the year 1780: the number of marriages and baptisms indicates that the existing po pulation of 1801 was, to that of 1780, as 117 to 100, while the amount of register ed burials remained stationary during the same period, as will be seen in the fol lowing account.
The bills of mortality in many parts of Great Britain are known to be materially defective ; the deficiencies are ascribed chiefly to the following circumstances. 1. Many congregations of dissenters inhabit ing towns have their own peculiar bury ing grounds; as have likewise the Jews, and the Roman Catholics who reside in London. 2. Some persons, from motives of poverty or convenience, inter their dead without any religious ceremony ; this is known to happen in the Metropo lis, in Bristol, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and may happen in a few other large towns. 3. Children who die before bap tism are interred without any religious ceremony, and consequently are not re gistered. 4. Many persons employed in the army and in navigation die abroad, and consequently their burials remain unregistered. 5. Negligence may be supposed to cause some omissions in the registers, especially in those small beni flees where the officiating minister is not resident. Whatever may be the total number of deaths and burials, which from these several circumstances are not brought to account, it has been estimated, males. smiles. Tout.
Baptisms 3,285,188 3,150,922 6,436,110 Burials 2,575,762 2,590,082 5,165,844 Th proportion of births therefore ap pears to be 104k males to 100 females; of the deaths, 99i males to 100 females. The average number of burials during the last twenty-one years was about 186,000 per annum.