Population, Houses and Families

Next Selection Previous Selection

I.—POPULATION, HOUSES, AND FAMILIES.

1. Persons absent from the United Kingdom.

Persons absent from the United Kingdom

The people of these islands are more movable than other nations, and large numbers of them are always abroad, sometimes on distant voyages, sometimes on the Alps, sometimes in the deserts of Africa, or in the strangest places; but generally in ships at sea, in the great commercial entrepôts, in the capitals of Europe, in our colonies, or in the States of America.

The measures which were taken to procure the returns of the army and navy, and merchant seamen abroad, either on sea or land, have been already described, and they were successful. The numbers exceeded a quarter of a million (250,356); of whom 162,273 belonged by birth to England and Wales. The army and navy of a country are an integral part of its population; they should therefore be counted among its numbers. But the population of travellers and of temporary settlers in other States are less accurately defined; their numbers are not easily ascertained, and they are represented to some extent by exiles and foreign visitors in England. They are therefore excluded from our Tables. The number of the British subjects, including the Scotch and the Irish, abroad, of which we have returns, was 67,969. This number does not include the English in America, in India, or in the colonies, neither does it include any of the English in France, except those who were domiciled. Upon the other hand, some of the people born at the Mediterranean Stations were inscribed in the Consular Registers as British Subjects; but as a general rule the Maltese and Ionians are excluded from the list.

British residents in Foreign parts

France is the country to which the English most resort in Europe, and 25,844 are domiciled there; 4,092 are returned in Belgium, 827 in Holland, 1,124 in Switzerland, 7,365 in Germany, 5,467 in Italy, including Rome, 2,072 in Portugal, and 3,879 in Spain, 525 in Greece, 2,360 in Turkey, and 931 in Egypt; in Denmark 372, in Norway 242, and in Sweden 411; in Russia 3749. Passing to Asia, 30 of Her Majesty's Subjects were returned in Persia, 1,072 in China, 81 in Japan, and 24 in Siam. The English population in India, according to the returns of the Indian Government (apparently defective), amounted to 125,379, including the English Army, 85,008 strong. They are not included in Table 5, page 81; see Tables 325-332, pp. 213-17.

340 English people are in the empire of Morocco. Algeria and the rest of Africa make no return.

Central America returns 145 English residents, Ecuador 27, Chili 4,152, of whom 3,265 are males, chiefly miners, and Brazil 2,838.

Table 6, pages 82-3, shows, in detail, the particular places in which, the English resided, and the notes supply some necessary explanations.

The numbers of each of the two sexes returned abroad did not greatly differ, as the males were 36,734, and the females 31,235. In France and Belgium the women exceeded the men in number; and in Germany there was little difference. The girls at school probably affect this result. In China, Japan, Chili, Brazil, and India the men preponderated largely.

The natives of England in the United States exceed the numbers in all other countries. Mr. Kennedy, the able Superintendent of the Census of the United States, has favoured us with an elaborate return of the numbers of the inhabitants of each State in 1860 who were born in this kingdom, amounting in the aggregate to 2,224,743; of whom it was ascertained that 477,455 were born in England and Wales, 108,518 in Scotland, and 1,611,304 in Ireland, 27,466 were described simply as born in the United Kingdom. In addition to these numbers 249,970 were born in British America, and 1,419 in Australia. The distribution of the 2,474,713 emigrants over the several States is shown in the Appendix, Table 7.

Foreigners enumerated in England and Wales

Our information about foreigners in England and Wales is tolerably complete, and Foreigners we shall refer to the details hereafter. The number was 84,090, or, exclusive of those from the United States, 76,229. This is some compensation, therefore, for the English Wales. abroad, who, as has been already stated, are not included in our numbers.

2. Population of the United Kingdom.

Population of the United Kingdom

The population of the United Kingdom in 1851 was 27,745,949 The increase, which had been so great in Ireland up to the era of Catholic emancipation, ceased after 18-11 and the population emigrated in large numbers to new fields of industry, so that the increase in the United Kingdom was found in the ten years ending in 1851 to be less than it had been in any previous decennial since the first Census was taken. The rate of increase decreased, and only 709,499 people were added to the population in ten years. In the ten years following, emigration flowed in a still larger stream, for by the returns, at least 2,054,578 British emigrants sailed from the ports at which accounts are kept1 ; the country was engaged in a war with one of the European powers, and it was again visited by the Asiatic epidemic; so that although it was probable that the population had advanced, the extent of the increase remained uncertain. All doubt, however, was dispelled by the enumeration, and the Census showed an increase of 1,575,339 people; making the aggregate population of the United Kingdom, including its army, navy, and merchant seamen abroad, 29,321,288.

Rate of increase

The increase was at the rate of 5.68 per cent. in the ten years, and of .553 per cent. annually.

This gives a correct view of the rate at which the population has increased; but to determine the increase of the English race the emigrants must be taken into account.2 The ascertained excess on the population of 1851, with the emigrants, makes 3,629,917.

The increase of the emigrants abroad, and the number of persons unregistered who leave the country, probably counterbalance not only the number of emigrants returning, of whom no record is kept, but also the number of immigrants into this country from other states.

The population has produced numbers to replace the dead, and on every thousand families an addition of 131, of whom 57 are provided for at home and 74 in America and Australia.

Distribution of the Population

The population was thus distributed over the four divisions of the United Kingdom in the year 1861:

TABLE I.

  TOTAL POPULATION. Population excluding Army, Navy, and Merchant Seamen Abroad. Proportion of Population in 4 Divisions of the Kingdom.
UNITED KINGDOM 29,321,288 29,070,932 100.0
       
England and Wales 20,228,497 20,066,224 69.1
Scotland 3,096,808 3,062,294 10.5
Ireland 5,850,309 5,798,967 19.9
Islands in the British Seas 145,674 143,447 0.5

The facts respecting Scotland and Ireland are discussed by the Commissioners for those parts of the United Kingdom; and we have now to notice the general results of the Census of England and Wales and of the Islands in the British Seas.

Out of ten parts of the population of the country, nearly seven belong to England and Wales, two to Ireland, one to Scotland, and a small fraction (1 /20 ) to the Channel Islands.

The population of England and Wales, including the army, navy, and merchant seamen abroad, was 20,228,497.

3. Increase of the Population of England and Wales.

The increase of the population of England and Wales since the last Census was increase of 2,174,327. The increase was at the rate of 12 per cent. in 10 years; or, 1.141 annually.

Emigrants

The emigrants of English origin in the last ten years amounted to 640,316, which makes the numerical increase since the Census of 1851 to be 2,814,643. The increase of the emigrants abroad is probably rapid, and it may be taken to represent the emigration reflux.

Immigrants

A certain deduction must be made for the Scotch immigrants who crossed the Tweed and never returned, as well as for the Irish emigrants who settled in England. The increase in the ten years of the numbers of the Scotch and Irish in England was 120,790, which has, however, to be reduced by the increase of the Englishmen in Scotland and Ireland. The number of persons in England born abroad increased by 63,429 in the ten years; but this is counterbalanced again by the increase of Englishmen abroad, exclusive of the recorded emigrants. If the whole of the increase of the 184,219 persons in England, born out of its limits, be struck off, the natural increase recorded becomes 2,630,424; and it is certainly the minimum to be arrived at by estimate, the true number being between this and 2,814,643.

Increase of Population

Taking the natural increase at only 2,630,424, the excess of the registered births over the registered deaths accounts for 2,260,935 of the number, leaving 369,489 children in ten years, or 36,950 annually, who are left unregistered under the Act, which does not enforce by penalty the registration of births on the parents or on the guardians of children.3

The increase of the population was at the rate of 12.0 per cent. in ten years. If the emigrants are added to the ascertained numbers, the rate of natural increase will be 15.6 per cent.; or, allowing for the Scotch, Irish, and other immigrants, 14.6 per cent.

The population of England and Wales has advanced steadily through this century; from 9,156,171 people in 1801 to 20,228,497- In actual numbers, the additions during ten years of war were 1,298 thousands; in the ten years 1811-21, divided between war and peace, the increase was 1,718 thousands; and in the next ten years, 1,879 thousands; making the aggregate.population at the Reform era, 14,051,986. Since the year 1831 the population, advancing firmly at a composed rate, has grown in each ten years by 1,983 thousands in 1831-41, 2,019 in 1841-51, and 2,174 in the last ten years, making the addition to the population since 1831 full 6,176 thousands, or exactly 6,176,511. In the same period swarms of emigrants have left these shores.

The annual rate of increase of the home population was highest in the years following the peace, before emigration was developed; it was 1.533 in 1811-21, and has fallen successively to 1.141.

The annual rate of increase in the 60 years of this century was 1.330, and the actual aggregate increase is 11,072,326, or 121 per cent. The population of 1801 doubled its numbers in the year 1852.

At the rate of increase prevailing in the last ten years, the population would double itself in 61 years. The period of doubling, deduced from the annual rates reigning during this century, is 52 years.

4. Males and Females.

Sex

The boys born in England are in the proportion of 104,811 to 100,000 girls4 ; but they experience a higher rate of mortality, and, according to the new English Life Table, the rates are so finely, adjusted that the numbers are reduced in the end very nearly to an equilibrium, the men and women living, of all ages, being in the proportion of 100,029 to 100,000. Such would be the state of things if there was no emigration, or if the men and women emigrated in pairs. That has not hitherto been the case; and at the Census, 10,289,965 females, and 9,770,259 males were enumerated. There was an excess of 513,706 women at home; or, deducting 162,273 from their number on account of their husbands and of other men in the army, navy, and merchant service abroad, the difference is reduced to 351,433 women at home; the men of the corresponding ages being on the continent, in the colonies, or in foreign lands, unless their numbers have been reduced by higher rates of mortality than prevail in England.

To 100,000 women, of all ages, in England, there are 95,008 men, of all ages, at home; or, including a due proportion (1,577) of the army, navy, and merchant seamen abroad, 96,585, leaving 3,415 of the absent unaccounted for.

Appendix Tables 21, 22

The excess of females over males at each Census is shown in Tables 21 and 22 (see page 88 App.) The proportion of men to women at home is less than it was in 1851, owing probably to the increase of the army abroad. It will be observed that the disparity in the numbers of the two sexes at home was greatest in 1801 and 1811 during the war; this was due to the men abroad in the several services.

Tables 70, 71

To complete this view of the proportions of the two sexes living at home, their ages must be taken into account. There is an excess of boys over girls living under the ages of fifteen: and by the Life Table an excess of men is provided all through the middle period of life; but that surplus is overdrawn by emigration, so that the women exceed the men in number to a considerable extent in the early, and middle, and still more in the advanced ages, when their longevity comes into play.

The excess of the emigration of males over females accounts for the present difference in the proportions of the sexes.

5. Houses and Public Institutions.

Persons enumerated out of houses

The nomadic race which once peopled these islands has a certain number of representatives still existing. Fairs and races are their field-days, and their irregular battalions are there easily passed in review. But the enumerators had to follow them to their haunts; and succeeded in discovering accounts of 7,130 who on the night of 7th April were in the open air, in tents, or in caravans, and of 4,314 in barns, sheds, and other places of shelter. The numbers living out of houses vary with the seasons; in winter they shrink into dwellings, and in summer they swarm again in the fields, which have irresistible charms for the vagabond race, as well as for their near Relatives the hop-pickers and haymakers. Mixed among them are found some of the victims as well as some of the outcasts of society.

The ascertained houseless class amounted to 20,348 persons on 7th June 1841; 15,764 on 31st March 1851; and 11,444 on 8th April 1861.

In 1861 we found also 11,915 persons living in barges, 6,665 in inland vessels in ports, and 55,765 persons in seagoing vessels in the ports of England and Wales. Of the whole class of the population, including those in vessels, out of fixed dwellings, 75,188 were males, and 10,601 were females.

Classes of the population, which in uncivilized societies are often without fixed dwellings, are now lodged, voluntarily or involuntarily, in public institutions.

Inmates of Public Institutions

Thus 26,096 criminals are in prisons; 24,345 lunatics are in asylums; 10,414 patients are in hospitals; 125,722 of the poor and infirm are in workhouses.5 There are 23,598 inmates in the principal charitable institutions and asylums. The inmates of colleges and schools have not been distinguished, and a multitude of small institutions of various kinds are treated as houses.

There were 63,840 soldiers in barracks.

In 1,684 public institutions of various kinds were 37,778 officers and servants, with their families, in addition to the special inmates.

The great mass of the population was enumerated in houses.

Definition of a house

What is a house ? appears to be a question admitting of an explicit answer. And the Definition enumerators of the United Kingdom were instructed to class under that category every of a house. habitation; each separate house comprising by definition all the space within the external and party walls of the building. Thus it became impossible to count either each room or each story as a separate house, although it might be separately occupied or owned, or might even have attached to it the privileges of voting.

On the continent, each hotel, however numerous may be its occupiers or tenants, is reckoned as one house; and the English practice was formally sanctioned, after discussion, by the official delegates of the various governments of the world at the London session of the International Statistical Congress.6

Difficulty of defining a house in Scotland

Scotland is the only country of Europe in which the definition of "house" has hitherto offered insuperable difficulties. In that country, the population of 3,062,294 souls has sufficient space,—19,639,377 acres,—giving six acres and more to each inhabitant; while houses in the open country enjoy the perfect security which is sought within the walled cities of the continent; yet Scottish families, instead of living on the earth in pure air, with the sky over their dwellings, in many instances prefer lying stratum over stratum in flats, opening into a common staircase,—.a continuation of the street,.—as it has been called, which receives the organic emanations of the families on each floor. In several of the towns they, at the various Censuses up to 1851, conferred the names of houses on these flats or floors as they would be called in England, étages as they would be called in France.7 And the Scottish Commissioners who possessed many local advantages, do not appear to have been more successful in 1861 than we were in 1851, in getting the actual number of houses in Scotland.8 This must he borne in mind in comparing the houses of Scotland with those of England and of other countries.

Distinct buildings enumerated as houses

We have, in conformity with the practice since 1801, for the sake of uniformity, enumerated as houses all the distinct buildings which were inhabited, as well as uninhabited houses, and houses building; and after thus avoiding the inextricable difficulties of the "flats," we have still many heterogeneous structures mixed up with houses in the ordinary sense of that word. The house is a very variable unit; it includes in the Census the hut on the moor, the castle on the hill, and the palace; so that every one of these structures, and of the intermediate mansions and cottages, is reckoned as a house. The ordinary house varies in size and structure in town and country,—in its cubical contents, in its hearths, in its doors, and in its windows; so that to give a correct view of the accommodation which houses afford the population, and of their value, and of their sanitary influences, a special inquiry is indispensable.

The Inhabited Houses in England amounted, in 1861, to 3,739,505; showing since the last Census an increase of 461,466.

Annual value of houses

The great difference in these houses is shown by their annual value. Thus 519,991 houses are returned at rentals varying from 20l 9 to 20,000l . a year; or at 52l. 8 on an average.

3,219,514 householders, or more than six in seven, pay no house duty; and the annual value can only be estimated approximatively, by continuing the series as shown in the Table 31 (p. 92 App.) By this method-the average rent of houses at rents under 20l . a year is 9l .5; and the mean annual value of all the houses in England is 15l .5 (15l . and 5 florins).

The annual value of all the houses at this rate is 58,013,181l , of which 7,159,0007. is due to the 461,466 new houses erected in the last ten years.

At 15 years' purchase the dwelling-houses erected in ten years are worth 107,000,000l .; and all the houses standing in 1861 are worth 870,000,000l .

1,575,923 houses were inhabited in 1801, and the subsequent additions of new houses, besides replacing houses decayed and destroyed, leave a surplus of 2,163,582.

The value of the houses has probably increased in a greater ratio than their numbers.

Number of houses

184,694 houses were uninhabited, and 27,305 were building in 1861. To 1,000 houses inhabited there were 49 uninhabited and 7 building.

The number of "houses building" was 27,305, or in the proportion of 1 house building to 137 inhabited and to 7 uninhabited.

The houses building were first enumerated in 1811; and the enumeration has been since repeated at every Census. In a country under depopulation the old houses fall into decay; many houses are uninhabited; and few new houses at a Census are "building." And as the question, Is England increasing or decreasing—decaying or flourishing—was seriously discussed during the last French war, it was thought that the inquiry into the "houses building" might assist in its solution.10

Houses Building

Upon comparing the number of "houses building" with the total numbers standing this result is elicited:—in 1811 to 1 house building there were 114; in 1831 the proportion was 1 to 105; in 1861 it was 1 to 144.

This seems to imply that since 1831 this "indication of prosperity" has taken an unfavourable turn.

The question requires investigation, as it is by no means so simple as it appears to be on the surface.

Houses are built to replace old houses, and to provide for the new families of the increasing population. If we assume, for the sake of illustration, that one house in 100 falls into decay every year, so as to require reconstruction, the 3,431,533 houses of 1851 would be reduced, by the decay of 328,116, to 3,103,417 in ten years; but the houses in 1861 amounted to 3,924,199, or to 492,666 in excess of the houses in 1851; the new houses sufficing to replace the old houses, and to leave the enormous surplus, must upon this estimate have amounted to 820,782, or to 82,078 annually on an average.

If an equal number of houses is built every year, and they last on an average the same number of years, the proportion which the number of houses building bears to the number of houses existing will depend on the mean time it takes to build a house. Thus, if the houses of a place amount to 1,000, and each lasts 100 years, the 1,000 houses will be kept up by the erection of 10 new houses every year; and if each of the 10 houses is built in a year the numbers "building," corresponding to those at the Census, will, on an average, be 10. If each house takes 2 years for its construction, 20 houses building will figure in the Census return; if the houses are built in half a year on an average, 5 only will be building, for 5 built in the first half of the year, and 5 in the second half of the year, make 10 annually.

The change in the proportion of the houses building to the subsisting houses is probably the consequence of the more rapid system of construction which is now carried on in the towns. Thus if houses, including huts and cottages, as well as castles and palaces, were built at the rate of 82,078 a year; then the 27,305 building in 1861 would imply that they were built on an average in about 4 months. If the houses were built on such a system as to require 51/2 months for completion in 1831, and 4 months in 1861, the difference in the proportion of houses building in 1831 and in 1861 would be accounted for by this cause alone.11

TABLE II.—PROPORTION of INHABITED and UNINHABITED HOUSES to 1 HOUSE BUILDING in ENGLAND and WALES in each of the CENSUSES 1811-1861.

Years. To 1 House building, the Proportion of Houses Houses building
to 1000
existing.
Inhabited and
Uninhabited
Inhabited Uninhabited
1811 114.057 110.909 3.148 8.8
1821 111.958 108.341 3.617 8.9
1831 105.071 100.228 4.843 9.5
1841 113.584 107.271 6.313 8.8
1851 129.146 123.369 5.777 7.7
1861 143.717 136.953 6.764 7.0

That such an increase in the relative velocity of building houses has taken place is quite in conformity with experience, and justifies us in refusing to consider the decrease in the proportion of houses building as any indication of the failing prosperity of England.

Uninhabited houses

The uninhabited houses amounted to 184,694; or there were 49 uninhabited houses, besides 7 building, to every 1,000 inhabited houses. This number represents the number of houses absolutely uninhabited on the Census night, for the Census Act did not enable us to distinguish the number of houses unoccupied by tenants paying rent to the landlord. The house unlet, in charge of a single woman, is counted as an inhabited house; and it happened in some cases that a house occupied by a tenant was uninhabited on the Census night.

A return of the number of houses unlet would throw much light on the relative value of house property; but we found it impracticable to deal with this question without special local inquiries.

Proportion of persons to inhabited houses

The number of inhabited houses was 3,739,505, and on an average there were 537 persons to 100 houses; making the proportion 5.37 to a house, or nearly 16 persons to 3 houses.

If the 397,582 persons in 1,684 institutions and ships are excluded, the persons to an inhabited house are reduced to 5.26.

The proportion of persons to 100 inhabited houses has gradually decreased from 575 in 1821 to 537 in 1861. This is a satisfactory movement, for the isolation of families in separate dwellings is in every way salutary.

This average, it is understood, is a mean result, and includes extremes and varieties of the utmost importance. We give illustrations of the variety of distribution in the houses of fourteen sub-districts.12

Thus of 48,273 houses, institutions excluded,—2,417 were uninhabited; 1,501 houses contained one person in each, or 1,501 inhabitants; 5,361 contained two inhabitants in each house, or 10,722 in the aggregate; 6,627 houses contained three inhabitants in each house; 7,048 houses (the maximum) contained four inhabitants in each house; the numbers then gradually decline. Each of 25,319 houses contained jive or more people; 4,465 contained 10 or more people; 1,389 contained 15 or more; 596 contained 20 or more; and 142 contained 30 or more inhabitants.

While more than half of the houses contain five or more inmates, more than half of the inhabitants live in houses containing seven or more inmates.

The Table (39) exhibits a series of very curious facts, and is particularly useful in indicating the precautions to be taken in the employment of averages, as well as in determining the different degrees of house accommodation.

6. Families.

Families, their constitution and numbers

The family in its complete form consists of a householder with his wife and his children; and in the higher classes with his servants. Other relatives and visitors sometimes form a part of the family; and so do lodgers at a common table who pay for their subsistence and lodging. In taking the Census the enumerator was directed to leave with each occupier a householder's schedule; the occupier by definition including the owner, or the person who pays rent, whether (as a tenant) for the whole of the house, or (as a lodger) for any distinct floor or apartment. Thus a lodger alone, or in company with another lodger, occupying common apartments, is an occupier, and as such is classed as a family in the abstracts. The occupiers of separate almshouses, of public buildings, of porters lodges, and of detached dwellings, although nominally paying no rent, are also treated as families; except in the case of servants boarding in their master's house.

The number of families was 4,491,524 in 1861; and the proportion of persons to a family was 447 persons to 100 families; 4.47 persons to a family; or nearly 9 persons to 2 families. The proportion of persons to a family varied from 4.69 in 1801 to 4.83 in 1851. And the reduction of the proportion to 4.47 in 1861 is fairly referrible to the multiplication of families by the recognition of lodgers as constituents of the class. If the 1,684 institutions and their inmates and persons out of houses (397,582) are excluded from the calculation, the proportion of persons to a family will be reduced to 4.38.

There are 12 families to 10 houses.

We have endeavoured to give a more definite view of the constitution of families, by analyzing their constituent parts, in 14 sub-districts, representing different classes of the community.

We distinguish three classes of families; the first has at its head a husband and wife; the second has a widower or a widow at its head; and the third has a bachelor or spinster at its head. The head of the family was absent in 3,163 instances out of 65,031; and of 61,868 families 41,526 had the husband and wife at their head; 11,099 had a widower or widow, and 9,243 had a bachelor or spinster at their head. About two-thirds of the existing families consisted of married couples; 6,487 were alone; and of the rest 31,896 had one or more children. The numbers who had children, relatives, visitors, servants, and apprentices, or trade assistants, in the various combinations, are shown in the Table; which also exhibits the corresponding facts for the other classes of families.

The number of children resident with their parents was 93,788; and there were 2.26 children on an average to each family, or 4.26 children and parents, including the father and mother, to each family of this class. Striking off the families consisting of husband and wife, sole, there remain 31,896 pairs having with them at home 93,788 children; that is, 2.94 children to a family, or 4.94 children and parents to a family. A fourth part of the families had 4 children or more at home; and these families of parents and children consisted of 7 persons on an average. The families of which widowers or widows were the heads had children connected with them in 6,677 out of 11,099 cases.


1 2,249,355 emigrants sailed from British ports, but 194,777 of that number were foreigners.

2 The emigrants of the ten years were most numerous in the early years, and left the country on an average 6.35 years before the Census of 1861; and at the English rate of increase would amount to 2,208,122 in that time, or 153,544 in excess of the original number. The actual increase was probably greater.

3 Births registered in the ten years 1851-60, 6,471,650; deaths, 4,210,715. The deaths of a certain number of children in the first days of life probably escape registration; some are buried as stillborn who were born alive.

4 See English Life Table No. 3.

5 The Number of Criminals in Prisons, of Lunatics in Asylums, of Patients in Hospitals, and of Paupers in Workhouses, in Summary Table XII., Population Tables, Vol. I., will be found to differ from those in Summary Table XXXII. in Vol. II., a few of the establishments reckoned as institutions in the former table haying been excluded from the latter, which shows the corrected numbers.

6 M. Legoyt, in his report of the proceedings in Committee, observes:—"La section esttombée d'accord sur la définition du mot 'maison,' et sur les faits intérieurs et caracteristiques auxquels la maison doit étre reconnue. Elle a refuse notamment d'attribuer cette désignation aux divers étages dont peut se composer une construction affectée à 1'habitation, lors mêmes quo ces étages seraient occupes par des familles distinctes, et qu'ils auraient un escalier séparée."—Rep. on Stat. Cong., p. 153. .

7 Johnson has been quoted in support of the notion, held by some persons in Scotland. A "house" he defines as (1) a place where a man lives; a place of human abode." (2) "any place of abode," &c. &c. Now it does not follow that because a house is "a place wherein a man lives," that every place wherein a man lives is a house; for instance, a tent, a barge, a ship, a cell, or a chamber is not a house. In the example which Johnson quotes, "Sparrows must not build in his house eaves," Shakespeare finely characterizes the house by its eaves: the man living under his own roof, not under another man's "flat." Again there is the other quoted passage:

"The bees with smoke, the doves with noisome stench,
Are from their hives and houses driven away."

Here a dovecote is a "place of abode," but it is not a house in the Census sense; and there is a difference between cell and hive. Johnson defines "flat;" and he was acquainted with Scotland, yet he nowhere intimates that "a flat" is "a house"; so that his authority is explicitly against the extension of the name of the part to the name of the whole of a building.

If any doubt remains on the subject, it will be dispelled by the following quotation from Boswell, who so faithfully reflects Johnson's opinions, in the Journal of the Tour in the Hebrides. After citing a certain baronet, upon the perils of walking the streets of Edinburgh at night, he adds:—" The peril is much abated by the care which the magistrates have taken to enforce the laws against throwing foul water from the windows; but, from the structure of the HOUSES in the old town, which consist of many STORIES, in each of which a different FAMILY lives, and there being no covered sewers, the odour still continues. A zealous Scotsman would have wished Mr. Johnson to be without one of his five senses upon this occasion. As we marched slowly along, he grumbled in my ear, 'I smell you in the dark!' But he acknowledged that the breadth of the street and the loftiness of the buildings on each side, made a noble appearance."—Boswell's Life of Johnson, Croker's edition, p. 270.

8 Report on Census of Scotland, p. xxvii.

9 Return ordered to be printed by House of Commons, 10th July 18C3. The Return gives the number of houses assessed to House Duty on 5th April 1802. The number of houses under 30l . is 205,528, and is taken as applying to houses of the annual value of 20/. and under 30l .

10 Preface to Census, 1811, p. x.

11 The relation between the five elements involved in this question of houses can be easily expressed, where the number of houses remains stationary. When either x or y is known, the equations become determinate; in the illustration which is given in the text, y is taken at 100. The effect of taking any other higher or lover figure is evident.

H = the number of houses enumerated.
y = the mean duration of houses in years.
b = the number of houses building; that is, the average number in the course of construction, represented approximately "by one enumeration.
h = houses built annually.
x = mean time employed in the construction of a house.

Then from yh = H; and h = b /x ; if h remains invariable, we have—

y = x H /b = duration of houses; when houses existing and building are given, as well as x. If x = 1, the time of construction is one year, andH /b = the mean duration of houses.
b = x H /y determines the number of houses building when x and y as well as H are given.
x = y b /H determines the mean time employed in the construction of houses when y is given as well as b and H.

When h increases, the H determined by enumeration is below the ultimate number of houses.

The following note is by a London Architect:—

"The number of houses building on a given day would depend upon—
  1. The season of the year;
  2. The building operations in the seasons immediately preceding;
  3. The facilities of obtaining money by small builders, and the price of materials in large speculations.

It would be a fair assumption that houses on an average are built in six months, many more small suburban houses being built annually than houses of any other description. The ground rent commences sufficiently soon after the building is begun to supply a strong motive for rapid completion. Everything is quicker now."

12 See Appendix, Tables 32, 33, 39.

Next Selection Previous Selection