The Population is stated according to the Parliamentary Returns. In Ireland the enumerations were incomplete, and are, consequently, left
blank. The Army and Navy having no settled residence, are not reckoned in the County numbers; they are, however, added to the General Statement.
It is likely, too, that the numbers stated do not include that vagrant population which is made up of gipsies, mountebanks, strolling-players, common
beggars, &c. The propriety of the division of the Counties of Scotland will be seen on referring to a map of that country,-as the whole population of
an extensive tract of country is more readily brought into comparison with the few Stations of the Methodist Ministers in each division: it should be re-
membered, too, that our general system of Itinerancy is not so applicable to Scotland as to England, and that, consequently, the labours of the Preachers
are confined principally to the places in which they reside. The Numbers in Society, &c., are stated from the "Minutes" of the respective years. In
the Minutes for 1803, there is evidently an error,-the sum total of Members (which seems to be correct) exceeding the amount of the numbers returned
for the several Circuits: Northampton is omitted entirely, and as several changes in Circuits were made that year, the difference may be accounted for:
the excess in the sum total is distributed among the places where it seemed most likely that mistakes had been made, so that the Tables and the Minutes
might agree. In the Welsh Circuits, where there are Welsh and English Preachers on the same Station, they are counted but as one Circuit. Some
Circuits extend into two or more Counties, as for instance Banbury and Stamford: in such cases, the Circuit is placed to that County in which the Circuit-
Town is situated, except Todmorden, which, in the Table, is added to the West Riding of Yorkshire, because by far the greater part of the Circuit is
there. As it could not be ascertained in which Riding the population of York was reckoned, it is placed separately: by the last Census the population
is stated at 20,787. Bristol and Kingswood are included in Gloucestershire.