on record in France was taken in 1700 and published in 1720. There was a general C. taken in 1800, and a decree of the national convention ordered that it should be continued every fifth year. Since about 1820, the C. has been taken very regularly. Brazil began in 1872, the Argentine Republic in 1869, Colombia iu 1870, and Egypt in 1862.
The first real effort to record the population of Great Britain was made in 1801, and then it did not extend to Ireland, which had just become a part of the empire by the celebrated union. This C. was crude and unsatisfactory, and the returns were im possible of classification. The chief value of the C. of 1801 was in calling attention to the importance of such statistics and evoking better methods for getting and classify ing them. Much better work was done in 1841 and 1851, when advantage was taken of the elaborate records of births, marriages, and deaths, which were begun the 1st of July, 1837. The first attempt at a general C. iu Ireland was made in 1811, but it was a failure. Some improvements were made in 1821 and 1831, since which satisfactory enumerations have been made by the constabulary. We lack space to go over the enu merations in Great Britain and Ireland in 1841, 1851, and 1861, and must come directly to the first imperial C.-1871. This first attempted complete enumeration of the popu lation of the empire was, so far as Great Britain and Ireland were a part, made in one day, April 3, 1871. The returns for the whole empire showed a population of 234, 762,593, living upon 7,769,449 sq.m. of territory, viz. :—England and Wales, 22,856,164 Scotland, 3,392,259; Ireland, 5,449,186; islands in British seas, 147,470; colonies and possessions, 202,917,214. The annual rate of increase from 1861 was:—In England and Wales, 1.23 per cent; Scotland, 0.92; Ireland (decrease), 0.71. The work of this C. was in charge of the registrar-general, assisted by Dr. W. Farr and J. T. Hammick. The main work was done by 32,543 enumerators, employed under 2,195 registrars and 626 superintendent registrars. All the enumerators were required to be intelligent, trustworthy, and active; to write well, and to have some knowledge of arithmetic. They were to be not under eighteen nor over sixty-five, and to be iu good health and of unexceptionable character. The whole country was divided into minute districts, and so great was the care taken, that every unnumbered house or dwelling had a fixed number put upon it before the schedules were sent out. Every means was taken through the press and by means of special publications to apprise the people of what was wanted, and instructing them how to facilitate the work. The householders' sched
ules were delivered in person by the enumerators who were to take them up. Every separate occupier received a schedule arranged so as to record the mane, day, age, rank, profession or occupation, conjugal relation, relation to the head of the family and birth place of every person who abode in any house on the night of Sunday, 2d of April, 1871. There were special blanks for blind, deaf and dumb, etc. There were 6,500,000 of these schedules, weighing 41 tons. In addition to schedules and enumeration books, there were sent from the central office 115 different priuted forms of instructions and circulars. The houseless• population were enumerated by the police, the navy by the admiralty, the merchant seamen by the customs bureau, and the army through the field marshal's office. The tenacity of the Welsh tongue was shown by the return of 17,276 schedules filled out in that language. The care exercised in taking this enumeration may be inferred from the fact that the enumerators were instructed to consider a house as com prising all the space within the external and party walls of a building, whether occupied by one or several families; they were also instructed to make an exact record of each house and the number of schedules left. With the help of the police they were to return all persons not on that night dwelling in houses, but sleeping in barns, sheds, caravans or tents, or in the open air. Special schedules were printed for the enumeration of persons in public institutions, on board vessels, or in charge of boats and barges em ployed in inland navigation. Persons traveling during the night of Sunday, April 2, were to be included in the schedules of the hotel, or the house at which t14. arrived on the morning of Monday. Persons engaged in work away from home during the night of Sunday were to be included in the schedule left at the house where they usually resided. The causes why an unusual number of persons were present or absent at any given places were to be reported. The expedition with which the enormous mass of information was assorted and compiled may be known from the fact that the abstract showing the population of Great Britain was laid before parliament in print on the 20th of June, only eleven weeks from the day for collecting the schedules. The C. of Ireland at the same time was taken by 4,536 members of the royal constabulary, aided in cities by the local police. In Scotland there were 1016 local registrars, and 8,342 enumerators. The cost of this imperial C. was, in England, £5 5s. 71d. for each 1000 of population; in Scotland, £8 ls. 4d.; in Ireland, £7 28. 7d.