Note 53 — Of the Streets of London. (continued 8)

The official returns as to the number of paupers are most incomplete and unsatisfactory. In the 10th annual Report of the Poor Law Commissioners, p. 480 (1844), a table is printed which is said to give the returns from the earliest period for which authentic Parliamentary documents have been received, and this sets forth the number of paupers in England and Wales, for the entire twelve months in the years 1803, 1813, 1814, and 1815; then comes a long interval of “no returns,” and after 1839 we have the numbers for only three months in each year, from 1840 up to 1843; in the first annual Report (1848) these returns for one quarter in each year are continued up to 1848; and then we get the returns for only two days in each year, the 1st of July and the 1st of January, so that to come to any conclusion amid so much inconsistency is utterly impossible. The numbers above given would have been continued to the present period, could any comparison have been instituted. The numbers for the periods (not above given) are—

18031,040,716Number of paupers for the entire twelve months.

18131,426,065

18141,402,576

18151,319,851

1849 (1st Jan.)940,851Number of paupers for two separate days in each year.

„ (1st July)846,988

1850 (1st Jan.)889,830

„ (1st July)796,318

1851 (1st Jan.)829,440