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THE COMING CENSUS.
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THE POPE'S NEW IRTSH BRIGADE.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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hero , of whom England should be proud , languishes in penury , but it is obviously a Spartan discipline , sure to lead to a Ther-. mopylse , which furnishes " blacleb ' roth" to the true warriors , and only ' permits the softening influences of wealth and favour to descend upon the most lady-like practitioners of the military art .
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mllE people of these isles will be numbered next year with L much greater exactness than on any previous occasion , but the value of the information so obtained will be much less than that formerly acquired by ruder and more careless processes . The census has been forestalled . When a man carries on his business for ten years without examining into the state of his affairs , he looks for the result of the thorough investigation which he may then employ an accountant to make with the greatest interest ; but if he has every year had a rough stockbalancesheethe knows
taking , and made up an approximative - , pretty well how he must stand ; and although he wishes to have the exact figures , so that he may apportion the profit and loss to each branch of his txade , he does not feel much anxiety about them . The Kegistrar-General has given us these yearly balancesheets . He takes each year the number of births registered—a number which has now become pretty nearly that of the births taking place , —deducts from it the number of deaths registered , which is almost exactly that of the deaths which occur , as well as the number of * emigrants , and gives us the result of this little sum in addition and subtraction as the actual
population . Of course the statement is but an approximation . There are thousands of foreigners who settle in this country every year , and tens of thousands of Englishmen , Scotchmen , and Irishmen who emigrate , under circumstances which "do not bring them under the notice of the Emigration Commissioners ; but the figures of the Registrar are iiear _ enough for practical purposes , and the census will therefore t < 3 fi its nothing very new upon this main point , except about Ireland . Tliere , no system of registration either of births or deaths is yet in operation , and we have no means of calculating- the present population . The census of 1861 will , therefore , have an element of interest about itjyhich that of 1 S 71 will want , if , indeed , in the march of science and statistics , a decennial census is not voted unnecessary long before the arrival of that epoch .
are left to pine in single blessedness , by how large a number of bachelors—what their ages are ; and the ladies had better tell the truth , for if they don't , the Registrar-General , with his old census , and his lists of births and deaths , will discover their weakness , and expose it to a jeering world;—how many Smiths , and how many Browns ; how many butchers , bakers , and undertakers ; how many missionaries of all names to convert sinners , — -and , if they would only be kind enough to tell us , how many sinners * That would , indeed , be a great result if it could be managed-Of course it were vain to hope that the respectable bank clerk would bracket swindler with that designation , or that a lady of
easy virtue without its reputation would describe herself in plain Saxon or euphemistic French . But if the recognised dangerous classes would designate themselves as burglars , garotters , swell-mobsmen , brothel-keepers , or prostitutes , we should have figures over which social science doctors might dispute , until they fancied themselves demi-gods , on which narrow-minded philanthropists might base repressive or so-called preventive legislation , sure to produce a plenteous harvest of greater criminals , and by which earnest , truthful men who believe in God and liberty , might be urged to fight still more stoutly the up-hill fight for that real liberty which alone can cure the disease , of which most of these crimes and vices are the
symptoms . But why talk of sinners ? The Government , presided over by that eminent theologian , Lord Palmeuston , holding with its chief that all babies are born good , treats us all as genuine Christians . Every householder is to say what is his own religion , and that of the inmates of his house . The proposal is a most preposterous one . We put aside all question of the right of the Government to demand a profession of religion
from any one . It would puzzle a great number of men belonging to the wealthy and well-educated classes to say to what particular confession they belonged , and if they answered truly they must unfortunately ' say to none at all ; but when we come do > vn to the very poor , what answers can we "hope to get ? How is the lceeper of the low lodging-house , or landlord of the crazy tenement let off in separate rooms to separate families , to tell the religion of his lodgers or tenants , and what help can they give him ? The Irishmen will , of course , be set down for Catholics ,
but what can be said for the Englishmen who never went into a church or chapel except to commit sacrilege , pick pockets , or perhaps to be married ? Everything must be left to the enumerators , the majority of whom would be incapable of discovering the religion of the poor creatures , if they had any , and who belonging mainly to the class in which religious partisanship is most violent , would be sorely tempted to commit pious frauds to magnify the importance of their own particular sect . And , after aHrof ^ hair ^ ttlut ^^ have those taken in the last census of the number of attendants
at places of worship of different denominations—a number utterly fallacious , because dependent upon the sectarian zeal of the people , and the canvassing ability of their pastors—fora source of embittered and fruitless controversy . Surely it is enough for all denominations to know that were their churches filled to overflowing , the bulk of the population would still icmain in a state but littlo raised above Paganism . As useful to ask men whether they are Whigs or Tories , have had the small pox or measles , and what they think about marrying a deceased wife's sister . These religious returns cannot be accurate ; and if they were would do far more harm by the amount of angry controversy they must necessarily create , than the most exaggerated estimate can make them worth .
Still , although that total , which is ! the chief matter of interest . in a national census , has lost most of its importance in this country , there are many minor points upon which the enumeration of next year will furnish welcome information . It has not the political interest of that of the United States , the figures of which determine the number of' representatives to ku isent to Congress by each Scate , and upon ' , which , ' therefore , may depend the preponderance of one section of the community in that House for the next ten years . We have not yet arrived at equal electoral districts , and our very politicians who most quote figures are just the men to deny the
rights of numbers ; bat , undoubtedly , if the Reform Bill should go "to the bad" in the dog-days , we shall have boroughs and counties looking to the enumerators for weapons wherewith to fight their respective claims next session . The Registrar-General can give vis the sum total , but he can give no particulars of the items . He can say what is the population of the United Kingdom at such a period , but he cannot say what is the population of this town or that county . He could strike , indeed , a balance of local births and deaths , but he cannot apportion the proportions of general emigation to each place ; and ,. what is
i . > fii . i ' f » lvr ivmm imiim-fnnh htt lina not t . ilfi faintest notion of tllC infinitely more important , he has not the faintest notion of the internal immigration of the people . The increase , for instance , in the population of London does not consist of the difference between its births and deaths . It avisos mainly from the constant tide which sets to it of youth which seeks employment , and misfortune or vice , ' which would hido its poverty from former friends , or pursue its guilty pleasures unchecked . Everybody wants to know what is tlio population of the world's metropolis ; the whole country takes a certain pride in its very hugeness ; and the first thing men will wnnt to know from the
oflicials , is the number of its denizens . An answer of three millions would give general satisfaction . Then every inhabitant of a rising town will want to know how it has grown , and how it stands in regard to its old rivals . There nre , besides , several other matters in which the goneral public feel some ntjlc interest . We don ' t speak of the statistical gentlemen , who will gloat over every column of the voluminous returns , which will bo presented to the Houses of Pnrlinmont by Her Majesty ' s command at a pretty cost for printing and paper ; only adepts of their own order can appreciate their raptures . We want to know how- many Scotchmen and Irishmen wo have in England , and whnt they arc up to here ; how innny spinsters
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THE spiritual sword of the Papacy has lost its early keenness , and after a vain attempt to cut down his foes Pio Noxo has dropped it in disgust . He now clutches , with both his fccblo hands , the temporal sword which some of his holy predecessors wielded so vigorously . Has tho old man strength enough to brandish the cumbrous weapon ? — or will the eitbrt bring hia tottering form to the ground ? That is just the question which must trouble all devout children of mother Church , and furnishes mutter of interesting but unconcerned speculation -to all outsido \\ ei \ bosom . What the major excommunication , has failed to accomplish General Lamouiciehe has to perform , and tho encyclical letters and pastorals arc abandoned for tho tricks of the recruiting sergeant . Tho result , of . this temporal warfare will probably bo the same signal defeat , perhaps upon , a larger and even ruinous scale , but tho struggle will doubtless bo a harder one . Tho French general is a man of dash and daring , an . experienced commander , and , still moro , an able organiser ; but he wants the raw material upon which to exercise his skill , and although called to the command by its sovereign , must really
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466 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . | "May 19 , I 860 .
The Coming Census.
TTTCT COMTNG CENSUS .
The Pope's New Irtsh Brigade.
THE POPE'S NEW IRTSH BRIGADE .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 19, 1860, page 466, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2348/page/6/
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