that being the name of the unsuccessful general. The rapacity of a Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg in 1712, is commemorated in, 'God is not Manukof; He grants without a bribe.' To the French invasion refer many proverbs, such as 'He was not scorched (ne opalyon, i. e., Napoleon), but he left Moscow scorched; or, The frightened Frenchman runs away even from a she-goat.'

With one most interesting chapter of Russian history, that which tells how the Russian peasant lost his liberty, many proverbs are associated. In One can see he is a kholop: rings in his ears; or, 'To the lord freedom, to the kholop constraint,' we find one of the names by which a slave was anciently known. Under the Tsars, every Russian called himself the sovereign's kholop, but Peter ordered the word rab, a less abject expression, to be substituted for it in petitions; and Catherine II. altered rab into 'truly-subject.' Another name occurs in 'Where the smerd thought, there God was not,' the designation smerd being, as some suppose, of foreign extraction, introduced into Russia from the side of the Wends, whom the Germans so degraded that the terms Slav and Slave became synonymous. In old times it was generally by entering into a kabala, or bond, that the freeman became a kholop, or bondsman; a bond of which mention is often made in proverbs. A thrall could not be a witness, for 'A kholop's word is like a spear,' and 'A false kholop is to his master a terrible foe.' But his position was not intolerable if his lord was a good one. 'Serving a good master,' says Daniel Zatochnik, one gains freedom;' and a proverb asserts that 'A kabala bends upwards, but the [entire and desperate] want of freedom downwards.' Of course it was easier to enter into a bond than to evade its consequences. Wide is the gateway leading into a boyar's court, but narrow [that leading] out of it.' But it often happened that the free peasant was worse off than the thrall, having to pay the equivalent for our rent, or as the proverb puts it, 'Slavery drinks mead, and freedom water.' However this might be, the ordinary rustic was at liberty to change his quarters once, a year, the annual time fixed for his migration being St. George's Day in Autumn, November 26, or rather, the two weeks preceding and following that day. Tradition asserts that when that day drew nigh, landowners who wished to retain their peasants used to brew strong beer. peasants drank themselves into forgetfulness, and did not recover their senses till St. George's Day was past, and they found themselves unable to depart for another year. It is from the day when Boris Godunof abolished this right of yearly migration, that the serfdom of the Russian peasant is generally supposed to

The

date,

date, though the change which took place in his position was really of a more gradual nature. And in the minds of the common people the day which was once to them suggestive of freedom, has for nearly three centuries been associated with a feeling of sadness. Here, grannie, is St. George's Day,' is a phrase still expressive of regret for some disappointment or loss. Here, though unwillingly, we pause. So wide is the field of Russian proverbial philosophy, that whole volumes might be compiled by one who minutely described his explorations therein. To know this book is to know the Russian language,' said Dahl, when presenting to an English visitor a copy of his. great collection of Russian proverbs. We may not go so far as to agree with him that a nation's proverbs form its 'popular code of laws,' but we trust that the foregoing pages will suffice to show that Russian proverbs may, at least, serve to illustrate some noteworthy points in Russian history, some interesting phases of Russian manners and morals.

6

ART. VIII.-Census of England and Wales for the Year 1871. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty.

THE

HE labours of Government Departments often receive but a scant recognition from the general public. It is probable that the last Census has already almost faded from the memory of most men, and yet the Census of 1871 deserves to be held in special remembrance; for on that occasion a census was taken the first time, not only of the United Kingdom, but of the whole British Empire. To enumerate the inhabitants of Great Britain alone might well be thought a very considerable undertaking. When at the commencement of this century a census was first made, it extended only to England, Wales, and Scotland. In 1801, and again in 1811, even under the keen eye of the late Mr. Rickman, nothing more was attempted. Perhaps nothing more could have been carried through at that period of our history. It was not till 1821 that the population of Ireland was counted. Fifty years later, what at an earlier date might well have seemed to be impossible, has been accomplished, and the muster-roll made out of all the subjects of Queen Victoria. A work of enormous difficulty it proved to be. Difficulties caused by differences of climate, differences of race, differences of religion, all have been overcome, and a trustworthy statement of numbers, not a mere estimate, has been constructed for the whole of the empire.

The

The vastness of these figures is such that it is almost impossible to take in at one view the full meaning of their value. As in a mountainous country the stupendous size of some giant of the Alps is scarcely understood, till the slow labour of the traveller painfully attempting to climb the shelving sides even of its lower slopes, brings home to his mind how enormous that mass must be of which but a small portion can be traversed in a day of severe toil, so it requires a considerable mental effort to arrive at an adequate appreciation of what those amounts of human life mean, which form in the aggregate this immense power; of the might of an Empire containing two hundred and thirtyfour million subjects. Let any one try to remember the names of those persons whom he himself knows; let him count them carefully and put down their number. Then let him compare that handful with the hosts of those who owe allegiance to her Majesty, and he may form some rough idea of what enumerating such a multitude really means. A quotation from Gibbon, in the Report, reminds us that the numbers are twice as great as those under the Roman sway in the reign of Claudius, and that the territory they occupy is nearly five times the extent.

Over these vast regions it is impossible at this time to cast more than a transient glance. The importance of such an inquiry as the Census, and the advantage which such information may be in the administration of so wide a dominion as the British Empire, can hardly be overestimated. Let it suffice to cite here one instance of the practical value which the making so exact an investigation may have; perhaps the best illustration that can be given, is to mention that in one province alone, and that one a district already supposed to be fairly well understood, it was discovered that twenty-five million inhabitants more existed than had been previously known of. We quote from a very remarkable statement recently made by Mr. Henry Beverley, Inspector-General of Registration in Bengal.

'On no previous occasion had any endeavour been made to ascertain by actual house-to-house enumeration the numbers of the heterogeneous masses subject to the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. The result was, that the Census of 1872 in those provinces brought to light some 25 millions of her Majesty's subjects, of whose existence our Government had previously been in complete and utter ignorance. The population of Bengal rose in one day from 42 to 67 millions. The Lieutenant-Governor, who was already supposed to have one of the largest gubernatorial charges in the world, suddenly found that he had unconsciously been the ruler of an additional population more than equal to that of the whole of England and Wales.'

When all the results of such a discovery as this are considered,

we

we shall be the more struck at what it really means.

It means

that the whole administration of a province, it means that the whole distribution of the incidence of taxation, it means that the entire basis on which the idea of government turns, requires re-adjustment.

To quote the Administration Report:

'The result has already been almost to revolutionise our ideas both in regard to the total amount of the population, and relatively in regard to its distribution in different districts, races, and religions; while by showing that the numbers vastly exceed any former computation, it has wholly altered our calculations with respect to the incidence of taxation, the consumption of salt, and many other matters.'—Journal of the Statistical Society, 1874, p. 70.

The whole idea of a government in India centres and depends on the numbers of the people. And when we are further reminded in Mr. Beverley's forcible words, that, as to Behar merely, during the late famine,

had there been no Census, it may be assumed that there would have been upwards of 8 millions of souls in that province alone utterly ignored in all measures of relief,'

we may well feel how opportune, as well as how necessary to good administration, is this exact information.

But to dwell longer, however tempting the field, on the more distant portions of the British Empire is impossible. Enough has been said to vindicate the need for such an enquiry as is contained in the Census. We will now endeavour to concentrate our attention on the central group which contains the mainspring of the mechanism, whence the governing force proceeds which directs the whole. And here, though the importance to the empire is almost infinitely greater, the numbers dealt with are almost infinitely smaller. For it is of one portion of Great Britain alone that we propose to treat.

Yet

From the consideration of 234 millions of souls we must now descend to less than a tenth of that number, strictly speaking to 22,856,164 persons, the population actually enumerated in England and Wales on the Census-day, April 3, 1871. this number, small as it looks by comparison with the myriads just cited, would have appeared an overwhelming multitude to our grandfathers—even to our fathers. Just as the sum of the National Debt seemed to them enormous and crushing when considerably less than one-third of its present amount; and the country so burthened was considered by one of our foremost statesmen to be on the verge, nay, in the very gulf, of bankruptcy; so by the inhabitants of England in 1801, 22 millions

would

would have been reckoned a most redundant population. In 1801 barely 9 millions appeared a large number. By 1851, but half a century later, the population had doubled; and still the increase continues. A complete comparison of the state of England now with what it was in the earlier decades of the century is, on account of the state of war then prevailing, barely possible. There is, however, but little doubt that the population of 1871 presses with less severity on the means of subsistence than the population of 1821. Great and continuous as the augmentation of numbers has been, yet the rate of that augmentation has been far from uniform. The annual rate of increase diminished, mainly owing to emigration, from 1811-21 to 1851-61, and as the diminution had been progressive, there appeared to be reason to expect it would continue. But between 1861 and 1871 a change took place. The development of the population within that decade was not only larger in number but larger in proportion, a point which we shall advert to further on.

The increase in the population has not, however, been uniformly distributed over the surface of the country. This fact will be obvious to any one from his own observation. While every town with which any one of us may be acquainted, almost without exception, has extended its boundaries and augmented its numbers, the rural districts have not received, or rather, have not retained, any increase. On the contrary, the numbers of the dwellers there have declined. On first examining the Census Report the difference appears small; there are but three counties in England and Wales in which the population had declined between 1861 and 1871. These were Huntingdon, Cornwall, and Rutland, of which only two are strictly speaking agricultural counties. But this statement only inadequately describes the real condition of matters. In the rest of the country the increase in the towns included in a county has, in several instances, caused the whole numbers of the people in that county to be larger, while in reality the agricultural population has considerably diminished. Of the fifty-four main divisions into which England and Wales are divided for registration purposes, if we compare the population in towns, and that in villages and the surrounding country, for 1871 with 1861, we shall find that

in 16 the rural population is now larger;

in 37

in 1 (Anglesea)

54

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