STATISTICS, a modern term adopted to express a more comprehensive view of the various particulars, constituting the natural and political strength and re sources of a country, than was usually embraced by writers on political arith metic. Its principal objects are, the tent and population of a state ; the oc cupation of the different classes of its in habitants; the progress of agriculture, of manufactures, and of internal and foreign trade ; the income and wealth of the in habitants, and the proportion drawn from them for the public service by taxation ; the condition of the poor ; the state of schools, and other institutions of public utility; with every other subject, the knowledge of which tends to establish the true civil policy of the country, and consequently to promote its prosperity.
The great change which has taken place in the business of government, since the introduction of the modern system of warfare, by which the time and labour of a considerable number of per sons is wholly appropriated to the pro fession of arms ; and particularly, since the adoption of the borrowing system for defraying the expenses of war has ren dered statistical information of much more importance than formerly, the na val and military force which a country is capable of furnishing depending essen tially on the state of population and em ployment, and the public finances becom ing, by a continual accumulation of taxes, intimately connected. with the state of agriculture, consumption, and foreign trade. Many errors and inconsistencies of former statesmen and legislators might ha, e been avoided by a better ledge gf the state of the country ; yet, although the utility of cultivating this branch of knowledge has become so ob vious, few of the governments of Europe have appeared much disposed to promote statisical inquiries. It will be a subject of wonder to future times, that even in Great Britain, so late as the year 1800, the state of the population, on which its capability of defence so much depended, was a subject of so much uncertainty, as to be estimated by many persons at but little more than half what it was afterward ascertained to be.
As a comparison of such statistical ac counts as have been published of the dif ferent states of Europe would be in a great degree useless and unsatisfactory, since the violent and essential alterations most of them have recently undergone, we shall confine ourselves to the princi pal particulars relative to Great Britain, as deduced from public documents, and other authentic sources.
The island of Great Britain is about 590 miles in length, and the circuit of its coast makes about 1800 miles : the part constituting England and Wales is in length, from Newhaven in Sussex, to Berwick upon Tweed, 355 miles, and in breadth, from the South Foreland in Kent, to the Land's End in Cornwall, 325 miles.
The area of England and Wales, com puted in acres, has been very differently stated by different authors ; for as it has never been ascertained by an actual sur vey, various modes of computation have been adopted, which have disagreed materially in the result. The follow ing are the principal estimates on this point.
eon.
By Sir William Petty 28,000,000 Dr. Grew . . 46,000,000 Dr. Halley . . 39,938,500 Templeman . . 31,648,000 Arthur Young .. 46,916.000 Rev. H. Becke . 38,498,572 In the returns relative to the poor, laid before the House of Commons in 1tIJ4, it was stated, that by the best computa tion England and Wales contained 58,335 square statute miles, and 37,334,400 sta tute acres. Scotland, with its islands, contains about 21,000,000 of acres.
The soil of South Britain is annually cropped nearly in the following propor tions.
The number of horses for which duty ft paid is 1,780,000. Their annual con sumption of food, reckoned by the pro duce of acres, is The total population of Great Britain, as it appeared by the returns made in 1801, including the army, navy, and merchant seamen, was 10,942,646 to which, if the islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, and the Scilly islands, are add ed, it may be taken at 11,000,000. See POPULATION. But it is evident, that the welfare of a nation, and its political strength, do not depend so much on its numerical population, as on the manner in which that population is employed ; the proportion of productive to unpro ductive labourers of which it consists. No accurate account of this kind has ever been taken, but the following estimate of the different classes of persons who com pose the present population of Great Britain cannot be far from the truth If these different classes arc divided according to the effect produced by their occupations, it will be found that the whole population of the country de m:114 for subsistence, and all the ctin veniencies of life, on the labour of less than one half of the total number ; and the increase or decrease of this produc tive part of the community, and of the effect of their exertions, is the mcasure of the increase or dicline of that gradual accumulation of stock which constitutes national wealth. In a different state of society, however, this division of the po pulation would vary considerably ; for were not thosb, who are considered as unproductive labdurers, employed in their several vocations, their duties, or at least the principal of them, must be di vulcd among those who at present are the efficient labourers; who, thus being obliged to give up part of their time to unproductive purposes, could not per form the same quantity of useful labour as at present ; and consequently, to sup port the same population, a greater num ber of persons would be compelled to engage, at least partially, in productive employs.