THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1698, 12 June 1874, Page 2

THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

lhe Imperial census for 1871 differed trom every previous enumeration in that it embraced the entire empire within its comprehensive returns. , Her Majesty the Queen rules over 234,000,000 of people, or twice as many as were gbverned by the Emperor Claudius. Her subject realms comprise »n area of 7,779,449, square miles, or rather more than one-fifth of the dry land upon the globe. These liegemen ot a .British sovereign inhabit 44,142 651 houses or rather dwellings; and London, tne capital of this enormous empire, has a population of 3,800000, whict exceeds that of the whole of England at the beginmng of the fourteenth' century, and is in excess of that of either Holland or Switzerlandat the present moment; while jt is considerably more than double the population of either Norway, Wirtemberg, Denmark, Baden, or Greece. With re' spect to the occupations of the people of Jingland, it appears that the professional class is computed to comprise 680,000 persons; the agricultural, 1,600,000: the domestic or helpful, 5,060,000; the industrial,; 6,137,000: and indefinite and nonproductive clasp, -168,000; while the children mount up to 7,500,000. The Noitk American possessions of the Crown cover an area of 3,376,025'5quare miles, with a .total population of 3,789,670; the African settlements comprehend 236;860,sauare miles, mhabited by 1,813,460 persons; India, with an area of 938,366Vquare miles is densely populated by 191.307,070 • souls; and the Australian colonies, with a territory of 2,851,000 square miles, not Stf^T-?818^ are peopled by 1,668,781 inhabitants. Considerably more than two-thrds of her Majesty's.subjects are Mahomedans, Hindoos, Buddhists and members of correlative faiths; and the other third presents the .most amazinediversiiy of beliefs whicTi it would be possi. ble to conceive. .An illustrative of it growing fear of- the responsibilities of .marriage m the % mother,-country, it is mentioned by the Imperial Registrar.' General that 69 out of every 100 men in England between the ages of 25 and 30 are found to be unmarried, and that what is called Jhe •• reserve ", of- unmarried women in that country; between the ages of 15 and 2L is set -down -at 1,246,000; while the females in England aud Walt i outnumber the males by 450,000. As many as 41 males and U4 females were returned -as being over 100 years of age.. The re. suit of the survey is thus summed up in the report, which has just heen made public:—" The Empire possesses 7,769, f) 449, square miles of territory.j-the United Kingdom, 121,608 square miles; the cole nies, 6,685,021; India and Ceylon, 962,820. J here are 38 persons to a square mile in the Empire, 260 , ia the United Kine. dpir, 201. |a India, and." 141 i n if« colonies."—Argug, r