sources. From thence he forms a great variety of deductions which it would be impossible to dwell on here, it must be sufficient to observe, that his corrected estimate of the population of Ireland for the year 1805, gives a total of 5,395,456 souls.

The several estimates of population already enumerated all rest on the same basis, the number of houses as ascertained by the hearth-money returns, and the probable average of souls to a house. The former of these was universally allowed, even by those who for want of better materials were compelled to have recourse to them, to be extremely doubtful, and tending, as far as relied on, to give a population much less than the truth: the latter was subject to no standard but the opinion of the calculator, supported occasionally by a very limited induction. Hence the average was by some, struck so low as 5 to a house, while others raised it to 64; the average of six has been chosen in all the foregoing statements, as being probably nearest to the truth, and as of easy correction by those who prefer any other rate.

The following table will afford a synoptical view of the estimated population of Ireland at the several periods noticed; the result of the enumeration under the act of 1812 is also added, in order to complete the view. The number of souls are estimated at six to a house, except in that of Sir Wm. Petty who calculates them at five to a house.

This number is the result of a calculation formed by an ingenious friend of the author, an account of which will be found at the end of this essay.

1812.

At length the time came when this great political theorem was to be solved in a more satisfactory manner. In the year 1810, the Imperial Parliament had passed an act to ascertain by actual enumeration the population of England, and it was shortly after determined, by a similar act with respect to Ireland, to extend the process to this country. On the 18th July, 1812, the act "for taking an account of the population of Ireland, and of the increase or diminution thereof," received the Royal assent. The process by which it was to be carried into effect, is briefly as follows:

Copies of the act and of the schedule annexed to it, were to be forwarded by the King's printer in Ireland, within thirty days after it had passed, to the peace clerks and town clerks of the several counties at large, and counties of cities and of towns in Ireland, to be by them distributed with all convenient speed, among the secretaries of the several Grand Juries within their respective limits. The Grand Juries were then directed to appoint, at their next ensuing meeting, proper persons to carry the act into execution; these were pointed out by the act to be, in counties at large, the head constable of each Barony or Half Barony, and in cities and towns, a substantial house-keeper in each parish. In both cases these persons were empowered to call to their assistance, in baronies, the persons employed in applotting and collecting the Grand Jury Cess; and in cities and towns, the Church-Warden, Constables, and other peace officers of each parish.

The inquiry was to commence through Ireland on the same day. The 1st of May, 1813, was fixed upon by the legislature for the purpose, and the persons appointed were instructed to proceed from house to house, and to continue their examination from day to day, without interruption or wilful or negligent delay, until the whole was completed. The points to which their enquiries were to be specially directed are as follow: 1. the number of inhabited houses; 2. the number of families; 3. the number of houses building; 4. the number of houses uninhabited from any other cause; 5. the number of families employed in, and maintained by agriculture; 6. the number of those employed in trade,

* The Bill was introduced into the House of Commons by the Right Hon. Sir John Newport; but underwent so many alterations during its progress, as to make it essentially different from the idea of its deviser. In illustration of this, it may be mentioned, that the Act, as passed, contains no clause whatever for ascertaining the increase or diminution of the Population, though this object forms part of its title.

manufactures, and handicrafts; 7. The number of those not comprised in either of the two other classes; 8. the number of souls (including children of every age) actually living within the Barony &c. at the time of taking the account, distinguishing between males and females, and exclusive of soldiers in the regular service or in the militia, and of seamen in the King's service or in registered vessels; 9. The number of inhabitants in each city, town, or village, within each district.

The result of the inquiries respecting each of those points, was to be digested according to a plan specified in the act, copies of which were given to each person so appointed, and the contents of these were verified by an attestation, under their signature made before a justice of the peace. In order further to insure the accuracy of the returns, and to obviate any difficulties arising from unwillingness in the people to answer the questions that were to be put to them, the act declared that any person refusing to answer such questions as should be necessary towards stating the particulars therein required, or wilfully giving false answers, should forfeit a sum not less than forty shillings, nor more than five pounds on complaint before a Justice of the Peace.

The original accounts, when perfected, were to be lodged with the peace or town Clerk among the archives of the county; and the returns formed from them to be transmitted to the office of the Lord Lieutenant's chief Secretary, where they were to be arranged and digested by an officer, to be specially appointed by him for that purpose.

Still further, in the hope of attaining the utmost possible accuracy, it was enacted, that wherever an examination of the returns afforded grounds for suspecting them to be defective or incorrect, the Chief Secretary should send them back to their respective Grand Juries for revision and amendment. Penalties were imposed on false returns made by the under agents, to whom the execution of the measure was entrusted, and the Judges were specially instructed to give it in charge to the Grand Juries throughout their respective circuits.

The provisions of the act, guarded as they were with precautions apparently calculated to ensure success, did not produce the practical effect that might have been expected. The failure may be attributed partly to the incapacity or negligence of the inferior agents, partly to the reluctance of the great body of the people, habitually suspicious

of every measure that assumed the form of special inquiry, and as habitually exercised in an evasive ingenuity in parrying off such inquiries-but chiefly, it must be allowed, to the body to whom the management of its execution had been in the first instance committed. The Grand Jury system, as it operates in Ireland, is not of a nature to render its members agents well calculated to ensure the success of an untried and complicated experiment. Meeting but seldom, and during their ephemeral session, overwhelmed with a load of ordinary business sometimes not to be completely got through, seldom well arranged, digested or executed, an additional duty of a nature not clearly understood, and for an object whose utility was not equally evident to all, came upon them in a very unwelcome shape. The appointment of the under agents was in some cases, the result of ill-directed influence; even the mode of remunerating those agents was, in many instances, such as to afford a strong temptation to misrepresent. The payment was made according to the amount of the population returned; thus holding out a premium for enlarging the aggregate. * In some cases, the persons employed to take the account adhered strictly to the letter of the act, in commencing the investigation on the appointed day, but seemed wholly forgetful that they were equally bound to continue the enquiry from day to day without interruption, or wilful or negligent delay; thus defeating the accomplishment of one object of the legislature, the attainment of a simultaneous return of the population. Some counties treated the act as a dead letter, and made no return whatever; in others the returns were confused, inaccurate or defective. In fine it was found impossible to prepare from them, a digest fit to be laid before Parliament in the session of 1814 and though in many instances, the returns were repeatedly sent back for correction, and letters specially issued from the Chief Secretary to the Grand Juries and others concerned in conducting it, urging its accomplishment in the strongest terms, it was ascertained at the close of the year 1814, that out of forty counties at large, and counties of cities and towns into which Ireland is divided, but ten had attained the standard of perfection contemplated by the devisers of the measure, six were wholly defaulting

An instance came to the knowledge of the officer appointed to arrange the returns of an agent who went so far as to include in his return children in the womb.

and the remaining twenty-four defective or inaccurate with respect to some of the points insisted upon in the schedule. The measure may therefore be said to have completely failed, and the investigator into the capabilities and resources of this part of the empire is still condemned to found his calculations on theoretical conjectures instead of solid facts.

But though the experiment failed, the measure has not been abandoned. In 1815, an act for effectuating it on an 1815. improved plan, introduced into the House of Commons by the Right Hon. Robert Peel, then Chief Secretary for Ireland, was sanctioned by the legislature. The principal features that distinguish it from its predecessor are, first, the transfer of the management throughout the counties from the Grand Juries to the County Magistrates, who, by reason of the greater frequency of their meetings, and the power granted in the act of holding special sessions for this purpose, were deemed more adequate to superintend the execution of the measure throughout all its stages. This alteration is more a change of office than of person: the same individuals who sit on Grand Juries sit also on the bench of Magistrates. It is, therefore, merely an enlargement of numbers and of time to attain the end proposed. The second variation consisted in the nature of the information to be collected and the manner in which it was to be reported to the Chief Secretary's Office. According to the late act, the information collected from house to house was to be digested into barony or parish returns, according to a specified form, by the persons on whom the duty of collecting this information devolved. The new act, considering that the qualifications for collecting information are wholly different from those requisite for its arrangement, as well as much more easy of attainment, has limited the duties of the inferior agents in the baronies or parishes, to that of taking an account of the name, age, and occupation of every individual within such district; and directed the lists, so made out, to be forwarded to the office of the Chief Secretary, on whom it imposed the duty of collecting the totals of each description of person, &c. and of arranging them according to parishes, baronies and counties, so as to form a grand total for laying before parliament. Another difference between the two plans, not indeed affecting the machinery, but of much importance towards the continuance of its good effects, is, that it is made prospective; its duration is not limited to the process of a single enumeration; it

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