Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/851

 POPULATION.] LONDON 821 city taken in 1631 is given by Graunt as 130,178, but the sum of his details is 130,268. By 1661 lie reckoned it to have increased to 179,000. He also concluded that the population within the limits of the &quot;Bills of Mortality&quot; was 460,000, and that from the beginning of the century it had increased from 2 to 5. The population of London and its suburbs, excluding Westminster and the distant parishes, he placed at 384,000, or about a fourth less than Paris. Notwithstanding the plague of 1665 and the fire of 1666, London towards the close of the 17th century increased with great rapidity. Evelyn, writing in 1684, states that it had nearly doubled within his own recollection. Sir William Petty, in his Essay on Political Arithmetic, estimated the population in 1683, including that of Westminster and Southwark, at 696,000, but Gregory King, in his Observations on the State of Eng land, first published by Chalmers, allowing 5} persons to every house, makes it in 1694, within the limits of the &quot;Bills of Mortality,&quot; only 530,000. From about this period London superseded Paris as the largest city in Europe. During the first half of the 18th century its pro gress was fluctuating, but on the peace of 1763 a great impulse was given to its prosperity, and after 1780 a rapid rate of progress commenced, which still shows no signs of diminution. Until 1756 there was sufficient space for the Mayfair east of Hyde Park, but by the end of the century the aristocracy had nearly all migrated west from Covent Garden and Soho. Islington was still almost dis joined from the metropolis, but the great eastern suburbs had become so consolidated as almost to absorb even Hoxton, Bethnal Green, and Stepney. The first census of 1801 included St Pancras, Marylebone, Paddington, Kensington, and Chelsea, but Chelsea was still a solitary suburban retreat, Kensington was little more than &quot; the old court suburb,&quot; Paddington and Westbourne were rural hamlets, and Marylebone and St Pancras had less than one-fourth of their present population. The populous city surrounding Regent s Park had scarcely any existence before 1820, but by 1830 it as well as Somers Town had become absorbed in the metropolis, especially by additions in the neighbourhood of St Pancras church and London university. Eastwards the most rapid extension had been in the direction of Greenwich, which was now united with Lambeth by a continuous line of houses. Belgravia in the south-west, and Tyburnia to the north, of Hyde Park are chiefly the product of the next twenty years. Since that period the suburban districts have in all directions become almost consolidated, and beyond the present limits of the registrar-general fringes of houses, extending in some instances outside even the 12 miles circuit from Charing Cross, connect the metropolis with populous towns which a few years ago were solitary hamlets. Within the last twenty years the rate of increase of the outer ring of this greater London has been 126 8 per cent., while that of London proper has been only 36 0, its outer ring showing an increase of 63 8 per cent., but its central area a decrease of 13*2, the decrease in the City being 54 -8, in the Strand 30 5, St Giles 16 3, Holborn 9 5, Westminster 11 9, St George s (Hanover Square) and Marylebone 4 1, and in the eastern central districts of Whitechapel, St George-in-the-East, and Shore- ditch 9 6, 3 8, and 2 2 respectively. In these latter districts the decrease^ has been occasioned chiefly by improvements, but in the central business districts it is almost entirely the result of the substitution of business premises for dwelling-houses. The day census of the City taken in 1866 shows that the number of persons employed daily within its limits was 170,133, and that of 1881 gives a day population of 261,061, while the night popu lation in 1871 was 74,897 and in 1881 only 50,526. The rapidity of the growth of London is largely due to the peculiar development of its trade and commerce, and is also closely connected with the interest excited by politics and the meetings of parliament. The bonds of connexion between London and England thus pulsate daily with a manifold vitality. London is the emporium of England, the centre of its great monetary transactions, the home of its science, literature, and art, and the yearly resort of its aristocratic and landed proprietor classes. Since the beginning of the century its rate of increase has exceeded that of England generally. The proportion of inhabitants born outside its limits amounts to Nation- one-third of its entire population. The number of the natives alities* of European states is in excess of those born in Scotland, and that of the natives of Ireland is about double, while the natives of the counties of England and &quot;Wales amount to more than a million. Irishmen by descent may be estimated at about 250,000 persons, Scots 120,000, foreigners 200,000, viz., Asiatics, Africans, and Americans together 45,000, Europeans 155,000 (Germans 60,000, French 30,000, Dutch 15,000, Poles 12,000, Italians 7500, Swiss 5000). The number of Jews is about 40,000. The special foreign district of London is that of Soho ; another foreign district lies in the neighbourhood of Katcliff Highway, now St George Street. The lower-class Jews inhabit the neighbourhood of Hounds- ditch and Aldgate. The Italian street musicians and vendors of ices form a small colony near Hatton Garden. Table II. shows the percentage of the population of London to Tables of the rest of England, the numbers before 1801 being only approxi- popula* mate ; Table III. the areas, houses, and population of London in tion. TABLE II. 1350. 1000. 1050. 1700. 1750. 1801. 1821. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1871. 1881. 90 000 180,000 350,000 5.-,o nun 600,000 804,035 1,227,590 1,872,305 2,302 2-36 2 80S 989 3 254 260 3 814 571 3 60 3-27 6 &quot;26 9-16 9-16 9-72 10-23 11-78 13-18 13-97 14-33 14&quot;C9 TABLE III. 1861. 18 1. 1881. in Acres. Inhabited Houses. Popula tion. Persons to an Acre. Inhabited Houses. Popula tion. Males. Females. Inhabited Houses. Popula tion. Persons to an Acre. London Police District, &quot;Greater London&quot;.. Registration London 441,587 75,3(i2 434,530 350 421 3,222,720 2 803 989 7 37 528,794 417 767 3,885,041 3 254 260 1,819,896 1 523 151 2,005,745 1 731 109 645,818 486,286 4,704,312 3 814,571 11 51 London under the Board of Works and ) School Hoard f 75,490 360,065 2,818,862 37 419,642 3,260,987 1,528,318 1,738,669 488,995 3,832,441 51 Parliamentary Boroughs District City of London 60S 1&quot; 98 112 003 168 9 305 74 897 30 459 38 438 6 403 50 56 76 Borough of Chelsea 7 028 35 020 258 050 112 526 145 524 47 954 366 516 62 Finsbury 5 147 44 o63 380 844 51 318 452,484 213 259 239 225 59 952 524 480 102 Greenwich ,, Hackney 8,581 4 700 26,073 49 259 169,361 302 378 83,080 171 742 85,681 190 036 30,842 55 865 206,651 417 11H 24 89 Lambeth 5 655 45 25 298 032 53 54 981 379 048 177 189 201 859 09 222 498 907 88 ,, Marylebone 5 429 48 000 436 298 80 52 290 477 532 21l 710 265 822 53 863 498 311 92 Southwark 1 990 25 683 193 443 97 26 965 208 725 104 620 104 105 27 526 221 860 111 ,, Tower Hamlets 4 097 51 310 391 790 193 549 198 41 r &amp;gt;~&amp;gt; 955 438 910 107 ,, Westminster 2,546 20 430 253 985 99 25 434 246 600 115 539 131 067 25 312 228J982 89 Total of Parliamentary Boroughs District ... 45,841 334,318 2,640,253 58 381,955 3,020,871 1,420,273 1,600,598 432,384 3,452,350 75 Kxclnsive of area under Thames.