Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 4.djvu/229

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Referring to the whole district it appears, from the above table, that there is a decrease of 136 in the number of agricultural families in 1831, compared with 1821. The parliamentary returns shew a similar, though not so great a decrease, throughout Great Britain: a fact surely indicating some undue or unequal pressure upon the agricultural interest of the country. There is no manufacture carried on in the district under consideration; and only such handicraft business as is sufficient for the demands of the resident inhabitants. With an increasing population, therefore, a decrease in the number of families employed in agriculture, must be distributed among the little shop-keepers, the beer or public-house keepers, labourers, or paupers.

From the two preceding tables, we find that, in