Part 6
+--------------------+-------------------------+------------+ | |Decrease or Increase(+). | Decrease. | | +------------+------------+ 1891-1901. | | | 1871-1881. | 1881-1891. | | +--------------------+------------+------------+------------+ | Huntingdonshire | 8.29 | 5.51 | 7.04 | | Rutland | 1.55 | 3.73 | 5.59 | | Westmorland | 1.25 | +2.96 | 2.73 | | Oxfordshire | +1.27 | +3.64 | 1.70 | | Herefordshire | 3.26 | 4.02 | 1.62 | +--------------------+------------+------------+------------+
Urban and rural districts.
The Welsh counties were Montgomeryshire, Cardiganshire, Flintshire, Merionethshire and Brecknockshire, the first-named showing the highest decrease, 5.08%, in 1891-1901. These counties are principally agricultural, and it is in agricultural districts elsewhere that the increase of population is slightest. But in 1871-1881 a decrease was found in the case of fifteen counties in all, and in 1881-1891 in the case of thirteen, whereas in 1891-1901, although Radnorshire, which returned a decrease previously, now returned an abnormal increase owing to the temporary employment of workmen on the construction of the Birmingham waterworks, the number fell to 10, and the average percentage also fell. This suggested some tendency to return to a state of equilibrium as between urban and rural districts. This is in a measure borne out by the movement of population in the districts classed as purely rural in 1901. In these there was an increase per cent of 14.2 in 1811-1821, which fell off to 2.8 in 1841-1851. A decrease then set in and grew from 0.2 in 1851-1861 to 0.67 in 1881-1891, but in 1891-1901 an increase, 1.95, was once more recorded. But the drain on the rural population continued heavy, for in the same purely rural area, which had a population in 1901 of 1,330,319, the excess of births over deaths was 150,437, but the actual increase of population was only 25,492, leaving a heavy loss (9.6%) to be accounted for by migration, the term used in this connexion in the general report of the Census to include movement of population to any new locality, home or foreign.
_Housing._--The total area of England and Wales covered by urban districts (a term which coincides pretty nearly with that of towns, which bears no technical meaning in England) was 3,848,987 acres, and contained a population of 25,058,355 in 1901, the increase in the decade 1891-1901 being 15.2%. The number of inhabited houses in the whole country in 1901, namely 6,260,852, may be compared with the numbers in 1801 (1,575,923) and 1851 (3,278,039); it gives an average of 5.2 persons to each house. This average has decreased with some regularity from a _maximum_ of 5.75 in 1821, but there is no certain evidence on which to affirm or deny that the average cubic capacity of dwelling-houses has been maintained. The urban population averaged 5.4 persons to a house, but varied greatly in different towns. Thus, an average below 4.4 is quoted for Rochdale, Halifax, Huddersfield, Yarmouth, Bradford and Stockport, while the average for London was 7.93, and for Gateshead, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and South Shields, in the northern industrial district of the Tyne, and for Devonport, the average exceeded 8. The average of persons to a house in rural districts was 4.6.
+-------------+---------------------------+---------------------+ | | Percentage of | Excess of Estimated | | Year. +-------------+-------------+ over Enumerated | | | Increase by | Decrease by | Population. | | | Births. | Deaths. | | +-------------+-------------+-------------+---------------------+ | 1851-1861 | 36.19 | 23.58 | 122,111 | | 1861-1871 | 37.56 | 23.98 | 78,968 | | 1871-1881 | 37.89 | 22.80 | 164,307 | | 1881-1891 | 34.24 | 20.27 | 601,389 | | 1891-1901 | 31.57 | 19.18 | 68,330 | +-------------+-------------+-------------+---------------------+
_Vital Statistics._--"The increase or decrease of population is governed by two factors: (1) the balance between births and deaths, and (2) the balance between immigration and emigration."[13] The following table is therefore given to show (1) the percentage of increase by births and decrease by deaths in each decade from 1851, and (2) the difference at the close of each decade (i.e. in the later year mentioned in each line) between the population which would have followed upon the natural increase unaffected by migration and the population as actually enumerated. In the case of (2) the actual population has always been exceeded by the estimate based on natural increase, and this demonstrates an excess of emigration over immigration.
The proportion of males to females is 1000 to 1068, this being a higher proportion of females than any recorded in the 19th century, during which the lowest proportion of females was 1036 in 1821. The proportion rose at each census from 1851. But on the other hand 1000 male children were born against only 965 female, on an average in 1891-1901. This excess of male births, which is usual, has been ascertained to find its equilibrium, through a higher rate of infant mortality among the males, about the tenth year of life, and is finally changed by perilous male occupations and other causes, including the stronger tendency of males to emigration. The proportion of females varies much in different localities, being highest in such districts as London and the home counties, which are residential, and in which, therefore, many domestic servants are enumerated; and Somersetshire, Bedfordshire and other seats of industries which especially occupy women (e.g. the straw-plaiting of the county last named). It is lowest, naturally, in the mining districts, as Glamorgan, Monmouth, Durham, Northumberland; but an exception may be noted in the case of Cornwall, where a high proportion of females is attributed to the emigration of miners consequent upon the relative decrease in importance of the tin-mines. In 1901 the proportion of females to males in urban districts was 1086 to 1000, and in rural districts 1011 to 1000.
_Urban Districts of England and Wales with Population exceeding 80,000_ (1901).
+---------------------+-----------------------+------------+ | | Population. | Increase | | +-----------+-----------+ per cent. | | | 1891. | 1901. | | +---------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+ | London * | 4,228,317 | 4,536,541 | 7.3 | | Liverpool | 629,548 | 684,958 | 8.8 | | Manchester | 505,368 | 543,872 | 7.6 | | Birmingham | 478,113 | 522,204 | 9.2 | | Leeds | 367,505 | 428,968 | 16.7 | | Sheffield | 324,243 | 380,793 | 17.4 | | Bristol | 289,280 | 328,945 | 13.7 | | Bradford | 265,728 | 279,767 | 5.3 | | West Ham ** | 204,903 | 267,358 | 30.5 | | Hull | 200,472 | 240,259 | 19.8 | | Nottingham | 213,877 | 239,743 | 12.1 | | Salford | 198,139 | 220,957 | 11.5 | | Newcastle-upon-Tyne | 186,300 | 215,328 | 15.6 | | Leicester | 174,624 | 211,579 | 21.2 | | Portsmouth | 159,278 | 188,133 | 18.1 | | Bolton | 146,487 | 168,215 | 14.8 | | Cardiff (Wales) | 128,915 | 164,333 | 27.5 | | Sunderland | 131,686 | 146,077 | 10.9 | | Oldham | 131,463 | 137,246 | 4.4 | | Croydon ** | 102,695 | 133,895 | 30.4 | | Blackburn | 120,064 | 127,626 | 6.3 | | Brighton | 115,873 | 123,478 | 6.6 | | Willesden ** | 61,265 | 114,811 | 87.4 | | Rhondda (Wales) | 88,351 | 113,735 | 28.7 | | Preston | 107,573 | 112,989 | 5.0 | | Norwich | 100,970 | 111,733 | 10.7 | | Birkenhead | 99,857 | 110,915 | 11.1 | | Gateshead | 85,692 | 109,888 | 28.2 | | Plymouth | 88,931 | 107,636 | 21.0 | | Derby | 94,146 | 105,912 | 12.5 | | Halifax | 97,714 | 104,936 | 7.4 | | Southampton | 82,126 | 104,824 | 27.6 | | Tottenham ** | 71,343 | 102,541 | 43.7 | | Leyton ** | 63,106 | 98,912 | 56.7 | | South Shields | 78,391 | 97,263 | 24.1 | | Burnley | 87,016 | 97,043 | 11.5 | | East Ham ** | 32,712 | 96,018 | 193.5 | | Walthamstow ** | 46,346 | 95,131 | 105.3 | | Huddersfield | 95,420 | 95,047 | 0.4 decr. | | Swansea (Wales) | 91,034 | 94,537 | 3.8 | | Wolverhampton | 82,662 | 94,187 | 13.9 | | Middlesborough | 75,532 | 91,302 | 20.9 | | Northampton | 75,075 | 87,021 | 15.9 | | Walsall | 71,789 | 86,430 | 20.4 | | St Helens | 72,413 | 84,410 | 16.6 | | Rochdale | 76,161 | 83,114 | 9.1 | +---------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+ * Administrative county.
** These districts, administratively distinct, belong topographically to Greater London.
The proportion of married adults (aged twenty and upwards) was found to decrease from 1881 to 1901, being 630 per thousand in the former and 604.5 in the latter year. The marriage-rate per thousand has ranged since 1841 from 14.2 in 1886 to 17.6 in 1873, and is evidently closely associated with the general prosperity of the country, for in the latter year the value of the total imports and exports per head of the population of the United Kingdom was at its highest, and in the former year at its lowest. The five years 1895-1899 exhibited a remarkable sequence illustrative of this:--
+---------+---------------+-------------+ | | Marriage- | Value, | | Years. | Rate. | Exports and | | | | Imports. | +---------+---------------+-------------+ | | | £ s. d. | | 1895 | 15.0 | 17 19 3 | | 1896 | 15.8 | 18 14 1 | | 1897 | 16.0 | 18 14 3 | | 1898 | 16.3 | 19 0 5 | | 1899 | 16.5 | 20 1 8 | +---------+---------------+-------------+
The marriage-rate declined, subsequently to the year last quoted in this table, to 15.6 in 1903. (O. J. R. H.)
_Religion._--In attempting to give a concise account of the religious conditions of England we are confronted from the outset with the absence of any trustworthy statistics. A religious census, such as is customary in other countries, has not been taken since 1851; nor is it probable that such a census would be any true indication of the actual religious beliefs of the population. Still less satisfactory, from this standpoint, is the attempt to compile statistics of religious belief from the registrar-general's report on the number of marriages celebrated in the places of worship of the various denominations; for among those who are practically attached to no religious body, and even some Nonconformists, a prejudice survives in favour of having their marriages celebrated and their funerals conducted by the clergy of the Established Church. Nor is the test of "sittings" provided by the various denominations, nor even the number of their communicants, a trustworthy test of the relative number of their adherents. In Wales, for instance, the rivalry of the sects has multiplied chapel accommodation out of all proportion to the population; while everywhere it happens that churches, at one time crowded every Sunday, have been emptied by the shifting of population or other causes. As for the test of communicancy, it is untrustworthy because the insistence on communion as the pledge of membership varies with the different denominations and even with different sections of opinion within those denominations. Any statistics of this nature, then, however useful they may be as a general indication, must not be treated as conclusive.
The Church of England.
Whatever disputes there may be as to the relative strength of the various churches and sects, there can be no questioning the fact that the dominant religion in England is Protestant Christianity. Protestantism, indeed, since the Act of Settlement in 1689, has been of the essence of the Constitution, the sovereign forfeiting his or her crown _ipso facto_ by acknowledging the authority of the pope, by accepting "the Romish religion," or by marrying a Roman Catholic; and though of late years efforts have been made to modify or to abrogate this provision, the fact that such efforts have met with widespread opposition shows that it still represents the general attitude of the British nation. Protestantism, however, is a generic term which in England covers a great variety of opinions, and a large number of rival religious organizations. The state church, the Church of England as by law established, represents the tradition of a time when church and state were regarded as two aspects of one divinely ordered organism. In law every subject of the state is also a member of the Established Church, and can lay claim to its ministrations so long as he or she obeys the ecclesiastical law, which is also the law of the state. No Englishman, whatever his opinions, can be excommunicated without due process of law. The Church of England is thus theoretically coextensive with the English nation, each unit of which is legally assumed to belong to it unless proof be brought to the contrary. To state the theory is, however, to risk giving an entirely false impression of the facts. In practice the Church of England is no longer regarded as coextensive with the state; nor is nonconformity any longer, as it once was, an offence against the law. Since the abolition of the Test Acts and the emancipation of the Catholics no Englishman has suffered any civil disability owing to his religion[14]; and the progress of democracy has given to the great so-called "Free Churches" a political power that rivals that of the Established Church. In the matter of the estimation of their relative strength the main grievance of the Nonconformists is that the law classes as members of the Church of England that enormous floating population which is really conscious of no ecclesiastical allegiance at all.
The Church of England, both in constitution and doctrine, represents in general the mean between Roman Catholicism on the one hand and the more advanced forms of Protestantism on the other (see EPISCOPACY). Though its doctrine was reformed in the 16th century and the spiritual supremacy of the pope was repudiated, the continuity of its organic life was not interrupted, and historically as well as legally it is the same church as that established before the Reformation. The ecclesiastical system is episcopal, the whole of England (including for this purpose Wales) being divided into two provinces, Canterbury and York, and 37 bishoprics (including the primatial sees of Canterbury and York). These again are subdivided into 14,080 parishes (1901), the smallest ecclesiastical units, which are grouped for certain administrative purposes into 810 rural deaneries. The sovereign is by law the supreme governor of the church, both in things spiritual and temporal, and he has the right to nominate to vacant sees. In the case of sees of old foundation this is done by means of the congé d'élire (q.v.), in that of others by letters patent.[15] The bishops hold their temporalities as baronies, for which they do homage in the ancient form, and are spiritual peers of parliament. Only 26, however, have the right to seats in the House of Lords, of whom five--viz. the two archbishops and the bishops of London, Durham and Winchester--always sit, the others taking their seats in order of seniority of consecration. Under the bishops the affairs of the dioceses are managed by archdeacons (q.v.) and rural deans (see ARCHPRIEST and DEAN). The cathedral churches are governed by chapters consisting of a dean, canons and prebendaries (see CATHEDRAL). The deaneries are in the gift of the crown, canonries and prebends sometimes in that of the crown, sometimes in that of the bishops. The parish clergy, with a few rare exceptions (when they are elected by the ratepayers), are appointed by patronage. The right of presentation to some 8500 benefices or "livings" is in the hands of private persons; the right is regarded in law as property and is, under certain restrictions for the avoidance of gross simony, saleable (see ADVOWSON). The patronage of the remaining benefices belongs in the main to the crown, the bishops and cathedral chapters, the lord chancellor, and the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
In spite of the fact that the Church of England is collectively one of the wealthiest in Christendom, a large proportion of the "livings" are extremely poor. To understand this and other anomalies it is necessary to bear in mind that the church is not, like the established Protestant churches of Germany, an elaborately organized state department, nor is it a single corporation with power to regulate its internal polity. It is a conglomeration of corporations. Even the incumbent of a parish is in law a "corporation sole," his benefice a freehold; and until the establishment in 1836, by act of parliament, of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (q.v.) nothing could be done to adjust the inequalities in the emoluments of the clergy resulting from the natural rise and fall of the value of property in various parts of the country. Even more extraordinary is the effect of the singular constitution of the church on its discipline. An incumbent, once inducted, can only be disturbed by complicated and extremely costly processes of law; in effect, except in cases of gross misconduct, he is only checked--so far as ecclesiastical order is concerned--by his oath of canonical obedience to the "godly" monitions of his bishop; and, since these monitions are difficult and costly to enforce, while their "godliness" may be a matter of opinion, an incumbent is practically himself the interpreter of the law as applied to the doctrine and ritual of his particular church. The result has been the development within the Established Church of a most startling diversity of doctrine and ritual practice, varying from what closely resembles that of the Church of Rome to the broadest Liberalism and the extremest evangelical Protestantism. This broad comprehensiveness, which to outsiders looks like ecclesiastical anarchy, is the characteristic note of the Church of England; it may be, and has been, defended as consonant with Christian charity and suited to the genius of a people not remarkable for logical consistency; but it makes it all the more difficult to say what the religion of Englishmen actually is, even within the English Church.
The following is a list of the archiepiscopal and episcopal sees of England and Wales--the latter arranged in alphabetical order,--with date of their establishment and amount of emoluments:--
Year of Annual Foundation. Emoluments. Province of Canterbury-- Canterbury (archbishopric) 597 £15,000 Bangor c. 550 4,200 Bath and Wells 1139 5,000 Birmingham 1904 3,500 Bristol 1897* 3,000 Chichester 1075 4,200 Ely 1109 5,500 Exeter 1050 4,200 Gloucester 1541 4,300 Hereford 676 4,200 Lichfield 669 4,200 Lincoln 1067 4,500 Llandaff c. 550 4,200 London 605 10,000 Norwich 1094 4,500 Oxford 1542 5,000 Peterborough 1541 4,500 Rochester 604 3,800 St Albans 1877 3,200 St Asaph c. 550 4,200 St David's c. 550 4,500 Salisbury 1075 5,000 Southwark 1904 3,000 Southwell 1884 3,500 Truro 1876 3,000 Winchester c. 650 6,500 Worcester c. 680 4,200 Province of York-- York (archbishopric) 625 10,000 Carlisle 1133 4,500 Chester 1541 4,200 Durham 995 7,000 Liverpool 1880 4,200 Manchester 1847 4,200 Newcastle 1882 3,500 Ripon 1836 4,200 Sodor and Man 1154 1,500 Wakefield 1888 3,000
* Modern refoundation.
The following are suffragan or assistant bishoprics (the names of the dioceses to which each belongs being given in brackets): Dover, Croydon (Canterbury), Beverley, Hull, Sheffield (York), Stepney, Islington, Kensington (London), Jarrow (Durham), Guildford, Southampton, Dorking (Winchester), Barrow-in-Furness (Carlisle), Crediton (Exeter), Grantham (Lincoln), Burnley (Manchester), Thetford, Ipswich (Norwich), Reading (Oxford), Leicester (Peterborough), Richmond, Knaresborough (Ripon), Colchester, Barking (St Albans), Swansea (St David's), Woolwich, Kingston-on-Thames (Southwark), Derby (Southwell), St Germans (Truro). See also ENGLAND, CHURCH OF; ANGLICAN COMMUNION; ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION; VESTMENTS; MASS.
+------------------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+-----------+----------+ | | Sittings. | Commun- | Ministers | Local | Sunday | | | | icants.|(Pastoral).| Preachers.| Scholars.| +------------------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+-----------+----------+ | Baptists[16] | 1,421,742 | 424,741 | 2134 | 5,748 | 590,321 | | Congregationalists (1907) | 1,801,447 | 498,953 | 3197 | 5,603 | 729,347 | | Presbyterian Church of England[17] | 173,047 | 85,755 | 323 | · · | 98,258 | | Society of Friends | · · | 17,442 | · · | · · | 62,347 | | Moravians | 10,100 | 2,999 | 34 | · · | 4,542 | | Wesleyan Methodists[18] | 2,500,000 | 620,350 | 2658 | 20,119 |1,039,437 | | Primitive Methodists[16] | 1,017,690 | 205,407 | 1101 | 15,963 | 477,114 | | United Methodist Church[19] | 738,840 | 158,095 | 833 | 5,577 | 315,993 | | Wesleyan Reform Union | 47,435 | 8,717 | 19 | 508 | 23,008 | | Independent Methodists | 33,000 | 9,732 | · · | 375 | 28,387 | | Welsh Calvinistic Methodist | 472,089 | 185,935 | 900 | 361 | 187,484 | | Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion | 12,347 | 2,469 | 26 | · · | 3,040 | | Reformed Episcopal Church | 6,000 | 1,090 | 28 | · · | 2,600 | | Free Church of England | 8,140 | 1,352 | 24 | · · | 4,196 | +------------------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+-----------+----------+
Other Protestant communions.
The number of "denominations" by whom buildings were certified for worship up to 1895 was 293 (see list in _Whitaker's Almanack_, 1886, p. 252), but in many instances such "denominations" consisted of two or three congregations only, in some cases of a single congregation. The more important nonconformist churches are fully dealt with under their several headings. The above table, however, based on that in the _Statesman's Year-Book_ for 1908, and giving the comparative statistics of the chief nonconformist churches, may be useful for purposes of comparison. It may be prefaced by stating that, according to returns made in 1905, the Church of England provided sitting accommodation in parish and other churches for 7,177,144 people; had an estimated number of 2,053,455 communicants, 206,873 Sunday-school teachers, and 2,538,240 Sunday scholars. There were 14,029 incumbents (rectors, vicars, and perpetual curates), 7500 curates, i.e. assistant clergy, and some 4000 clergy on the non-active list.
Besides the bodies enumerated in the table there are other churches concerning which similar statistics are lacking, but which, in several cases, have large numbers of adherents. The Unitarians are an important body with (1908) 350 ministers and 345 places of worship. Most numerous, probably, are the adherents of the Salvation Army, which with a semi-military organization has in Great Britain alone over 60,000 officers, and "barracks," i.e. preaching stations, in almost every town. The Brethren, generally known, from their place of origin, as the Plymouth Brethren, have "rooms" and adherents throughout England; the Catholic Apostolic Church ("Irvingites") have some 80 churches; the New Jerusalem Church (Swedenborgians) had (1908) 75 "societies"; the Christian Scientists, the Christadelphians, the British Israelites and similar societies, such as the New and Latter House of Israel, the Seventh Day Baptists, deserve mention. The Latter Day Saints (Mormons) had (1908) 82 churches in Great Britain.
Roman Catholics.
Roman Catholicism in England has shown a tendency to advance, especially among the upper and upper-middle classes. The published lists of "converts" are, however, no safe index to actual progress; for no equivalent statistics are available for "leakage" in the opposite direction. The membership of the Roman Catholic Church in England is estimated at about 2,200,000. But though the growth of the church relatively to the population has not been particularly startling, there can be no doubt that, since the restoration of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in 1851, its general political and religious influence has enormously increased. A notable feature in this has been the great development of monastic institutions, due in large measure to the settlement in England of the congregations expelled from France. The Roman Catholic Church in England is organized in 15 dioceses, which are united in a single province under the primacy of the archbishop of Westminster. In December 1907 there were 1736 Roman Catholic churches and stations, and the number of the clergy was returned at 3524 (see ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH).
[Illustration: Map of ENGLAND & WALES--Section III.]
Jews.