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 196 CENSUS general statistics of population. For climatic reasons, the month selected is March or April. The most recent census was taken in 1871. The census of Ireland was intrusted to a royal commission, that of Scotland to the registrar general of Scotland. Great Britain was divi- ded into 32,606 districts, to each of which a special enumerator was appointed. Each enu- merator had a district of less than two square miles in area, and containing an average of 131 houses and 696 persons. In addition to the 32,606 enumerators, there were 627 super- intendent registrars and 2,197 registrars. The police assisted in enumerating the houseless population. The army and the navy were re- turned by the naval and the military authori- ties; the merchant seamen by the customs officers and the registrar general of merchant seamen ; and British subjects in foreign states and in India, and the population of the colonies, by the secretaries of state for foreign affairs, India, and the colonies. " Householders' sched- ules," distributed in advance, were required to be filled up on the night of April 2, and were collected by the enumerators the fol- lowing day. These schedules contained in- quiries in regard to the name, relation to head of family, condition, sex, age, occupation, and birthplace of every person in Great Britain; and also as to the number of blind and deaf and dumb. Travellers were enumerated at the hotels and houses at which they arrived, on the following day. At the same time schedules were delivered in the proper quarters for col- lecting information respecting places of wor- ship, schools, and miscellaneous institutions. In Ireland the census has been taken by the constabulary force. The mode of enumeration is essentially the same as in England. The schedules, however, are more comprehensive, and include inquiries relating to insanity, idiocy, degree of education, school attendance, religion, civil state, when married, birthplace, language, residence, and buildings other than habitations. An agricultural census has been taken in Scot- land and Ireland for many years. A cattle census was taken in England for the first time in May, 1866, and was followed soon after by a more comprehensive agricultural census. The move- ment of the population of the United Kingdom is annually determined by the registrar gener- al's office, through the agency of the district registrars. Besides the registrar general's office, there exists in almost every department of the British government a special statistical service for the preparation and publication of statisti- cal reports upon the various interests of the kingdom. The origin of the American census may be traced to the colonial period, when the British board of trade caused enumerations of the population to be made at different times, which was done under the immediate direction of the colonial governors, through the agency of the sheriffs and their deputies. These pro- duced, however, little more than approxima- tions to the actual number of the population. The census of the United States presents the unusual fact of being ordained by the con- stitution of the government, the first article of which prescribes a general enumeration of the people within three years after the first meet- ing of congress, and within every subsequent terra of ten years thereafter. The immediate object of the census was the apportionment of representatives and direct taxes. The agents employed to ascertain and report the elemen- tary facts are the United States marshals in the several states and territories. The first census was taken in 1790, and recorded the names of heads of families, enumerated the free white males of 16 years and upward, the same under 16, and gave the number of females and the number of slaves. The second and third cen- suses distinguished the sexes and colors of free persons, classifying the free males under 10 years of age, those from 10 to 16, 16 to 26, 26 to 45, 45 and upward ; the slaves were simply taken by number. In 1810 the marshals were directed to make return of the several man- ufacturing establishments and manufactures within their several districts. A like division was made of population by the fourth census, which distinguished the number of persons en- gaged in agriculture, commerce, and manufac- tures respectively. By this census an account of manufactures was returned, and a digest thereof was published in 1823. The enumera- tion of the fifth census distinguished the sexes of all free white persons, and the ages of white males and females, by periods of 6 years up to the age of 20, thence by periods of 10 years to the age of 100 and upward, specifying the deaf and dumb and blind under the age of 14, those between 14 and 25, and those over that age ; the free colored persons and slaves were classified by sex, and the ages under 10, and from 10 to 24, 24 to 36, 36 to 55, 55 to 100, and 100 and upward, distinguishing the colored deaf and dumb and blind without regard to age. The sixth census, taken in 1840, distin- guished the whites by sex and by age, as fol- lows: 1, all under 5 years, thence to 10, thence to 15 and 20, thence by tens to 100 and upward, specifying the deaf and dumb, blind, insane, and idiotic; the free colored population and slaves by sexes and ages, first under 10, thence to 24, 36, 55, 100, and those above 100; also the deaf and dumb, blind, insane, and idiotic, without respect to age. In this enumeration the marshals were required to take a census of persons receiving pensions from the United States, with the name and age, and to make returns of mines, agriculture, commerce, manu- factures, and schools. In 1850 the scope of in- quiry was so greatly enlarged as to make that year an epoch in the growth of the census in this country. For the purpose of preparing adequately for the greatly enlarged work pro- posed to be undertaken in the enumeration, a census board was established provisionally, con- sisting of the secretary of state, attorney gen- eral, and postmaster general. Upon the dis-o-