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Maps, plates, charts, etc., rney be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are fiimed beginning in the Mc^er left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmds d des taux de rddirction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clichd, il est filmd d partir de Tangle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n6cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mithode. 12 3 t 2 3 4 5 6 THE CANADIAN CENSUS OF 1871. Remarks on Mr. Harvey's Paper published in the February Mumber of " The; Canadian Monthly.'' An able titatiat, Mr. Block, has said, " a " statistic established with no other pre •' occupation than truth is not the statis- '' tic having the best chance to escape " attacks.'' The oificials engaged ia tlie statisticsil work of the Cauiidian Census of 1871 have now had abundant opportunities of experiencing tlie exactness ot Mr. Block's honest, but rather humiliating reflexion, Mr. Hai'vey, whom 1 am now answering, cannot take amiss that his strictures are examined and that, in doing so, a few ot the many misapprehensions and errors which compose the elements of all the at'-icks made on th ! Census are exposed. Long before the Census was taken and even before the system was adopted, some newspapers had predicted that all would be wrong fJid the result incorrect. Tliis arose from the inner conviction that iiaa.- gin-Ary anticipated Jigures, which had found credit in the public mind and which had been made the basis of many arguments and expectations, would vanish betore the evidence of the real facts. These wild ex- pectations had been raised to such an extent that ?.he probable population of the Dominion for 1870 was set down, by some, at the precise number of 4,707,751, which estimate, nevertheless, was declared by others to be ''rather below than above the. actual figures.''^ Mr. Harvey's own figures of the expected population amoimted to about four million and a quarter, for the feur provinces. It was painful for the prophets and their believers to bd struck by the fact that the brilliant witioipations of an extraor- ihnary increaxe of population, which have I ;ow(ie(l new-spapers, reviews and almanacs fi >r several years, were not realized ; in the sime way that it is painful for an over a,iuguine bu!^iness man to become acquaint- ed with the fact that his speculations have not turned sc profitable as he expected. Noverihele&s, it is of paramount iraportiince ibr tL e country, as it is for the merchant, to know the truth as it is, and it wouid be dangerous for both to allow themselves to be deluded on points of such vital impor- tance. The same deception had partly overtaken the people of the United States who were pr.uiised, by cliarmlng ci\lculation3. a po- pulation of 45,000.000 and even 50,000,000, and great also whs the ilisappointment at the announcement given by theliifct United .States Census that the population was not quit« 39,OtJO,O0O. Fortunately for our iieighbors, they have had the good dispo- sition to accept with dignity the unwel- come truth. In answering the ably written imd no doulit popular article of Mr. Har- vey, I have, therefore, the unpopular 8id« ot the question ; but, as I am certain that i am, at the same time, on the side of verity, 1 will, come what may, uphold it in aa lew words as 1 am able, the length of which, however, will have to bear the increase of necessary (quotations from the paper of my learned adversary. Mr, Harvey begins h;s criticism of the Census of 1871 by the following words : — " The CoiiHUJi of IHGl envc to Upijer uiid I ower "Cauui'H, New Brunswick, aiid Nova Scotia, " aboui. three million souls, and If these Provlnceci I I V 2 THE CANADIAN CENSUS OF 1871. " liad contlnur ^ to Increase until iKTl, lus last as "tlicy \vori> s.id to liiivc don': for tlip tt;n "l)n;VoUins yciirs, tliey woiilil now luivi; iium- "l)en>a lour millions luid a (juiirtur, Instoail '-f "under tliri'c millions and a luilf. Tlie dltlcrenco "between the anlicii)ated lif;iirc> and Uieiuitual " Ntiilemont Ik sriive and the imhllc are a« steiulily "denying the uciauivcy of llie recent, eensus,afl t!i(! "<)tnciHlsareupUoldlugll. I ldcK!S not follow from "the fact that the general (wpeetatlon has heen "dlsapix)int<>d, lliat the oflicials are mistaken." 1 answer, that the ascertaining of the population of a country is not a question of anticipiitioa, expectation, induction, comparison or of geometrical progression, but one of evidence, to be obtained de cisu and in silu by sworn witnesses, from house to house, every individual being recorded one by one, hf/ name, and in no other w.iy. It is not a mattor of argument, but essen- tially of fact. The rate of increase of one period, in n young country yet undergoing the proce?' of colonization and traversed by migratory currents, is no criterion whatever of the rate of increase of the next period, '''he population of Upper Canada was 465,357 in 1841, (end of thot year) as ascertained by the census of that year ; it was 952,004 in 1851, (end ot the year) ; and 1,396,091 in 1861, (end of 18C0) showing a total in- crease of 104 per cent for one decenniad, and 46.00 ior the period next following ; But as the second period was made, m reality, oaly of nine years, the correct statement is to say that the annual in- crease was at the rate of 7 .42 during the lirst, and 4.34 during the second period. This example shows the fallaicy of cal- culations based on a mere regular geome- trical progression, made to anticipate the | knowledge of a fact which still lies under ' the veil of futuritv, and of which the mul- tifarious influencing causes, such as the i action of density, of migrations, palation "actually there, was assigned to 'ach house, vil- " lagc, eounly, city" This is what is asserted and copied and made an argument of, sufficient (however irrelevant tc any reasoning) to delude the prejudice! portion of the public; but what are the facts ? The Census of 1 861 was not taken ii; one day, nor in two weeks, but although much less extensive, took as many weeks to complete as the Census of 1871". 1 1 was not tiiken under either of the twouystems (the,d«jureor the dt facto) ; but without system, and made to include both the7))V"-v;i^and absent of every family ; thereby making a double entry of idl the ductuating population, travelleis, school - ars, inmates of public institutions, lumber- men in the forest, &c . (fee, who were all counted twice, iirst where found and second with their families at home, all that in addition to foreigners happening to be, for the time biing, present at some place in the country. That the Census of 1861 gives a some- what exaggorited figure is a fact that never was doubted by thosfl who have had opportunities of studying the proceedings ot that Census, for the simple reason that the prool of the double entries exists on the very face of the schedules and in no concealed form. The same proportionate exaggeration, i)y making use ot precisely the same proceeding, was made in the Census ol 1851. It follows that the enormous increase, heretofore signalized for the period 1841-51 (although widely dirtering from the next following) con- tains an iiuportaut error, and that the falling off in the ratio of increase for the decenniad 1861-71 (although in reality very large) is not, by a notable figure, so large as is made apparent by comparing the reiiurns of the two last censuses, lar. Harvey enters into rv rather over- philosophical examination of the systems of Census takmg, in whioh^ the systena de Jure is represented as a sequence of the "Roman jurisprudence. ... which mysti- " fieslhe unwary litigant," and the system dcfiwto as following the "Common Law " ideas and whatever is most practical :"of uU of whicli Mr. Harvey concludes f^hat the byatt-mdejure is "cognate" lo the latin jieople." and '[foieuju' to the Teuton. I shall not tvater into any discussion of such transcandeutal uatuie, being rather inclin- ed to restrict myself to facts and to argu- ments derived therefrom. The facta are, that there is no discrimiiation as to tlie races which have adopted one of the two above rnentioned systems. There are latin peoples who have preserved the tra- ditional system de jure, and there are latin peoples who have adopted the comparativ- ely recent system of de facto, and so it is with tho Teutonic races. Two exanrplea will suffice to show the error into wnich ^Ir. Harvey has fallen, just in comf- quence of relying entirely on the use an4 the abu.se of the method of induction in relation to pure matters of fact. The largest latin agglomeration, France has, for some time, adopted the system de facto for the quinquennial enumeration of her pooplo. The largest English speaking agglomeration, both in point of population IP BH THE CANADIAN CENSUS OF 1B71. 8 linolude [family ; ill the I school -- luInber• cere all second Ithat in be, for )lace in so and territory, the United States are ma! . ing .ie of tlie system dcjure: in this respect their manual of instructions, for their Census of 1870 is similar fo ou" own manual of 187J . I hope till, henceforward, Mr. Harvey will bec;oine convini!iMi th.it the adoption of the f/fi, /'(/ye system. inUiiiiMda. is not. dim to the fact that Mr. DunKin is a 'Quebec lawyer learneil in the roiuan Juiispru- dence'' and M.rTache '-a French (.'anadian piir samj." Mr. Ilarvey elewhere says : " Mast of tlii> clKH'ks, liowevi'r, wliit-h hnvp " Ix't'ti iipiilioil, linv(' .•■lii'Wii ilio (.'oiihiis ;:'.:iirrs to "be nil \iiKlfi' stiit'.'mfiit, iis indood irmn tbo " nutiire ol' Llio de j'ltrf; priiiciijl;! iipnliod l>y " nDtraiued iiioii, tliey nro pretty sure iu'l)t'.'' Without attaching more importnrce to these so called checks, which are very much inferior, in character and reliibility, to a regular census, such as they are, they have been the. reverse of what l\h: Harvey asserts them to h ive been. Tlie munici- pal enumerations of Ontario (there are none in the other Provinces) t.ikoii few week) before thfi census day. show loss numbers of population, and in most cases considerably so Amongst the many of which I have myself compared the figures, there is only ont o.xcei'tiou, and only amounting to a triflinu; difteren<.e of less than one per cent in a small locality. I have so fai heard of only two enumo- i rations tuken, since the puilicition of the ! census figures : and Wda under precon- ceived ideas and with the ivowed pur pose of showing the Census at fault. In Ontario the town of St. Mary's has had one taken, which is a confirm i; ion of the Census, inasmuch as tli^ Census gave to that locality 3120 souls, and the special enumeralioii 3178, nine months after date. In Quebec, the frontier town of St. Johns has had an enumeration, tsiken without names or anyotht'i'iiu-. us of control which has given a ponulation sever.il hundifds in excess of the (Jensus, out ci' 3'J22 inha- bitants, a clear indie iti'..i that the, check was rather overdono. This cise falls under the applicatiuu uf the ma::im of universal wisdom, whi^'b si,-.-j; " Who pruve.s too much proves notning." 1 repeat tint there is no guarantees whatever in .'^Moh check enumerations, taken ! y agents not legally responsible, under .sf^ctionnal influences, at work, amongst a population, at the time rtCtuated by au intense spirit of locality and .ilmosit pledged to procure a liigher figure than the Census. It is plam that to obtain a correct enumeration in such circumstances is a chaine not to be expected once in many times : che'^iks of that sort are to be received not with o grain but withabush?! of s'llt. It would be indeed a remarkable stall' of municipal officers, and a remarkable community that would, in America specially, keep its equanimity of mind and delicacy of conscience under such a pressure, in the absence of the ne- oes-rary precautions appertaining to this kind of work. Apart from all that, an enu- meration made without writing in the nime of every person is admit ted to bo, by all authorities, under all circumstance-', a questionable piece of staiistics, as it allows of little or no control and opens the door to all sorts of eiiors. Mr. Ilarvey, elsewhere, says : " Jfova .'^ootin lias had u rnslstratioii system in " opeiittiou for sunie i't-urs, more or less otflcient, " and the sontlomaii who hns liacl charge of It " has boon attnclied to the Cniisus StafK Honci!, " tlmt Provlnco hr.s. In iill likelihood, tlio mont " eoinplet^' eiuuneiatloii, andcoiisi queiitly gains. ■'The other I'ro.liicos liavc not had thls.| great " advdiiuisfe." Tills is certainly an ingenious theoretical explanation of the higher r.atio of increase reported for Nova Scotia ; but the facts, the unyielding facts, unfortunately again set their stubborn argument against the conclusions arrived at. The registiation system in Nova Scotia, with the exception of what concerns the city of Halifax, i.s still in its infancy, and has noo yet, and could not nave, despite the efforts of the zealous official who is at the head of the Statistical Office there, reached a point even approaching approximation; while the Province of Quebec, where the ratio of increase has been the smallest of the four, has, for the eleven twelfths of its population, as perfect a ey.item of regis- tration as the very best in Europe, and that from the very beginning of its colo- nization ; so much so that the ancestry of the poorest Catholic laborer in Quebec, cjin be traced to the first of his name who immigrated to Canada. Besides, the registration of births, mar- riages anl doiths is a thing quite separate ^'nd distinct, in every particular, from the process of taking a census. The registration office, when organized, .,s it is in Iingland, for instance, may renier the preliminary labor of preparing, 1^ and the ultimate labor of compiling the returns more e isy to the head office, by making use of an already trained nume- rous pernonnel of registrars, deputy regis- trars, and registration clerks, which, how- ever, has not been the case in Nova Scotia. The fact of the matter is that the cen- sus of Nova Scotia is neither better nor worso than tlie census of the other Provinces ; the same system was applied to all, the same precautions taken, the THE CANADIAN OENSUS OF 1871. '^ ■' ': personnel chosen in tho same manner, the prehminnry instruction, both l)y books and oral teaching, imparteci in the sume way, and the samo processes oi verification resorted to. For those vho are actjualnt ■ ed with the proceeding^t of the last census, the supposition I am refuting .'ind tlie con- clusion derived therefrom are simply lu- dicrous. Mr. Harvoy a little furiher, when at- tiicking the de jure system, says . " In this) cnnnoetion wo should consldfi' thiu, !' " th<^ de Jure H.v.su>ni wmks injustice! anywhero h " is in ttie towns and (;ltio.«. Tim Inivcllpi-s st;iy- " iii>t at liotols, tlio jounK lnds mI ."clicois iiiiil " bmrdintj h'.uises, the sprvant^ in famillcs—jvH "these are reforrod tr) their liouns, wliic i an; "chii'ti.vin tlio conntry, wlillo foroifiiiors pH.ssiuK "tlirouuli thfi Dominion whoaie not ennnicrnKHl "at all, are almost altogether la cities ;iiiil " tOWllK." Speaking of irjustice. becuise tho tra- vellers and foreigners are not added in, as part of any population, to which they are of course perft ct .stranger.s. is ratlier a serious mi»apprehen.sion of the idea o. right. What is the object of an enumeration of the population of a country ? Is it tlie me.e childish vain desire of crow ling the largest possible ligures on paper,? Is it not, on the contrary, for the honest and reasonable purpose of knowing the real strength, or the weakness of the agglome- ration and of every portion tiiereof ; of knowing the relative proportion of st'xr>.a, ages, ist«nce, in order to divulge the causes and suggest future invigorating or curative ac- tion ? If, to the re done in one day, and its results published within a week. It is, however, ({uile erroneous. But even if such ex- l)edition were possible, it would be of no decided advantage, in ordinary circum- stances, and certainly no panacea against errors- Mr. H.arvey himself gives a very good reason why, we in Canada, should not sacrifice to the impatient desire of being very fast, when he says, speaking of the diihouUies existing in statistical enquiries and census takin..; m America: " Buiies which of cdl others require mosi training and most .special study, are thus of necessity placed in the hands of unskilled, uniraiied and hastilji appointed persons." Is it not then plain that to adopt a system which necessitates ten times as many officers and enumerators, and which requires the most haste, would be addiug to the difficulties and chances of errors to a very great ex- tent, if not in a proportionate ratio? There has been a falling oS in thi ratio of incroa e of our population during the la?t decenniad, and although the extent of it could not have been surmised before Uie actual taking of the census, still, men who had spent some time in analyxing the THE CANADIAN OSNflUS OF 1871. the Eegig. 'igners arc a h'nffliahmen lists as are /he figures table must the dejure, if 1851 and Is and both 'ell imagin- buite inade- \djtgtires.'' 8 has been he two sys- |the correct- stems have practiced ; salvation ; ation of sin. m the other df. Ju7-e sys- oth by tlie an authori- view of the ijities of or- Ltent of ter- iD-ititutions. that it does haste which adoption of i well, how- ., which has kind of by- 3U3ofalarge i of country, i its results s, however, f such ex- Id be of no iry circum- cea against ives a very , should not ■e of being king of the .1 enquiries a: " DuUcs training and of necessity I, uniraiied Is it not item which ofticers and es the most difficulties ' great ex- ratio ? a thi ratio during the the extent ised before I, still, men aly&Dg the movements of our population were pre- pared for a result which has taken by entire surprise a large portion of our public, laboring under the delusions of the 'anticipated figures. The statement of the facts revealed by the census is easily suHtained by the argument derived from notorious con- comitant events. With tha exception of the three last seasons (only two appertain- ing to the last decenniad) the immigra- tion permanently settling in the country has been, for many years past, compara tively a mere nothing, at the same time tliat a considerable emigration was going out from all iiarts of our four Provinces, but more especially from the Province of Quebec. That emigraton towards the United States, already be- gun during the previous decades, h&b ^K'len intensified during tht>i last one. An im>'i:ense vacuum in the 1 ibor market had beei) created, during that period, in the midst of tht able l)Odied mde population of the neighbouring Republic, t)y several years of a fierce civil war, and the coinci- dent fact of ti.e abolition of compul- sory slave labour. The call to fill up came under the double fo-m of plenty to do and high wages. Ourc >raparati»rely small population furnished, i; could not be otherwise expectiid, a luge part of the filling, thereby causing an absolute diminution oi tlui population, and a proportionate diminution in the ratio of increase of our people. To remain blind to the light of such a plain explana- tion of the results ascert tined, supported by such a broad notorious fact, wou,d cer- tainly indicate a very unhealthy state of the public mind . The reflecting mind of Mr. Hflrvey, not withstandmg that he impugns the accu»-- acyofthe census on mere .suppositions, is in spite of himself drawi. to deal with the fact of a diminution in the rate oT in- crease of our population :— for those who are accustomed to analyse the Human mind and the association of ideas, it is a decisive proof that Mr. Harvey is, in reili- ty, and at the bottom of his 'oul, more convinced of the accuracy of the census than he has made himself aware of. He says: " there seems to br ,i point at which po])ulation " in the old countloH ~top.<, and it is i)i'obnbly " rea<:hed when tbero arc tin many )>eoiilefurmlnK "the land a.s can profiuibl.v do ho by their own " labour, and without (Uipl.yhi':; capital in undcr- " drainlug, sub-soli pi ngliiuar, or artlliclai man- ''iirea. I.i the present sitate of the lioiuinent, " wltJi new (and." within easy reacli, it po.ssibly " payB the fJirnigr botter to send 111-: t^nnn away "to seek them tlui • to ^strive to inci'ca.'se his " crops by applying i-cience and oapltivl to the old " farm. That it does so ha.s evlcfently become "the prevaiBng belief." There ia no doubt a great weight, ft very great weight, in the ably stated reoutrks above quoted ; but, — the conclusion which logicidly follows these premises, is that a diminution in the ratio of increase of our population becomes a matter of oour»e, to an extent commensurate with this cause added m the other forces at work in creating and maintaining the existing current of emigration. Further, Mr. Harvey i«;fB:-- " Have tlio farming laniis b<>en too much subdi- " xlded ?— anc' is a I'lenrlng out process coniiiienc- " In;; naturally, like that which was carried cit " forcibly in theS'ioltlsli HlKlam>, whore In order " to gflt the best returns, the landlords made the " eott,er.s leave their small farms and seek new "ones In another pulatlon has been reached, tliat can "by the system of farming in vogue in t^uebec " and ontiuio tjo well supjjoru^d, it is quite clear " whither the surplus ^wpulation of txjtii Provln- " (!es m ust flow . It, will go northward only by de- "greoH, though when it do>s pass the Laurentlttn " ridgt'K, and get cstnhllshod on the clay soils " north of them, It may till up another tier of "comities yet. It will keep, if not on the same " parallel of latitude as near to it as possl- "ble; emigration movements always da " It will keep on the zone of similar " vegetation, it may, fo- aught we know, " have already largely sweii>?d the population cf " Mitme.sotiv, Wisconsin and part of Michigan. "Some of U may have been seduced to Illinois " and Iowa, but the Canadian seldom stays there "long. It will, If facilities are provided, rather " remain under the old institutions, and we shall "find that When a railway Is f'on.structed it will " s(>ek the Nortii \Vest(;rn TeiTltorles— and pro- '■ bably get as far westwani as it can on the As- " slniboino and the soutli .Saskatchewan to e.«cape " the o.\treme co'd of the Rcoling nature : the Emigraticn to the United ^States seems to have passed its olimax and a leaction is now taking plitce and will probably continue us long as the ratf of w.'iges finds it-* ordinary level and the emigrating mania is curing itself. Thp fecundity of our families, on thft whole, 's not impaired and the Europo.nn Emigra- tion, for the last three years, seems to take a mora favorable view of the advantiiges offered by our country, in all its parts, for immigrants. Therefore, let us not be despondent, but let us at the same time avoid being deluded. We cannot be in a moment as big as some of our over sanguine fellow subjects were expecting, but let us try to be naturally as big as we can safely be. Mr. Harvey, after having opposed sup- positions to the Census, says : " If live I XT cent, of tlic |K)i)iilution <>( Qiu'Ik'c ."haw l.c'Dii omlt/eU, imtl eiglit f thai of New .'"Briir).s\vick uiui (iiitario, tlio .idUltioiiiil tliri'c "bimdrort thonsaiid, which It is Ihouslilu conwt ■''•o!i:inu;ralioii •<-oakl alloti lo us, would make ',*Htxi.s total more respoctabli-.'' '- Let it not fie lost sight of that no earth- ly being can have any knowledge of those supposed errors of the Census, which are purely drawn from imagination, for the simple reason that no philosopher can have any intuitive idea of such a thing, that no statist his any means of discover- ing it by induction, that no mathemi\tioian can put it to .any possible test of calcula- tion. The facts are, 1st, thai, the Census 18 the legal, legitimate enquiry, performed under an approved and tried system by the constituted authority, with the help of 12 supervising offi' ers, 206 directing and revising commissioners, and ne uly 3,000 enumerators, nil educated beforehand for that purpose, all sworn at the beginning and the end of their work, and each one acting for the NPClioii of country best known to him, in which he is interested and for which his affection is most ini«nse -, 2nd, that the returns, in the whole, show an increase of about 1.00 annually: 3rd, that the Province of Quebec is the only one of the four enumerated whose increase is reported to have fallen below the aver- age of 1.00 ; 4th, that the bulk of the po- pulation of that Province of Quebec is renowned for its extraordinary fecundity, which Mr. Harvey himself picturesquely acknowledges in the following words : — '■'almost every home looks like a rabbit warren ijorpwng." \ The logical, the natund conclusions would therofore be that the Census is as I correct as any operation of the kind, under I the circumstances of the country, can I reasonably be «'Xpected to be, and that, if there had been errors of omission, the j Province of tjuebec i-t that in which they would most lik'dy have taken place. : rii*' oontiiiry conclusions, upon such re- I cord, seem to me very much like the sen- I teace of a certain magistrate, who is said to have decided a case as follows : — 'The I " evidence is to mo very unsatisfactory ."indeed: as it is its weight would seem ! " to go in favor of Flanagan, but as the '• said Fian.'igan has red hair, I feel that " the ends of justice will be better attained " in giving judgement in favor ol Jones "for half tlie sum, Flanagan paying the " costs." 1 am glad before closing this paper to be , al/le to agree in the views and opinions of i Mr. Harvey on one point, at all events, I namely the important subject of vital sta tiatics. Nothing can be more correct than the statement that recording marriages, births ami deaths cannot be done, even with approximate accuracy, in the taking of a Census. This is essentially a matter of day to day registration. The Catholic population of the Province of Quebec is possessed of such registration, from the earliest time of the colony, and a more complete, uselul and interesting .'ecord can hardly be imagined. Apart from its social utility, 1 would be inclined to say necessity, it constitutes an important and especially atti*active statistical page, not only !»s regards Canada, but also as con- cerning the science itself, as being the orily record in existence which goes back without intrrmption and in all its details for tvfo centuries and a half, giving the entire family history of a whole population from its very first origin. Ihe immense statistical labor, as com- pared with the small lorce eiiployed at it, which has been quietly but incessantly carried on in the Department of Agricul- ture since 1864, is now nearly completed. From the long list of the yearly registra- tion of the movements of the Catholic po- pulation ot the Province of Quebec, (to which are added the abstracts of all the Onsupes overtaken in the four Provinces) we gather that the total number ol Catho- lic marri'igcs since the time of Champlain (loJcii ij t'.ie ye^ir 18T0 inclusive, has been 373,146, thnt the total number of births has been 2,2,-ii,lii~ and that the total number of deaths has been 1,060,760. This shows a grand total of excess of births over the number of deaths amounting to 1|183,557| including m||„the Fxengh (^- '':« I ■ip"'^ THE CANADIAN CENSUS OF 1871. i arlian, the English speaking Hnd other CatholicB of the I'rovince of Quebec. If there had been no Emigration from Queboc at any time, the Catholic popula- tion of that I'rovince would have been at the end of 1870 (the Censu.'* year) 1, 183,- 557, plus a number equal to the grand totrl hgure of the Catholic immigration from the beguming. But thera was a comparatively consider- able Catholic emigration fiom Quebec to Louisiana, Michi^ien. other parts in the weat and elsewliore, during the time of the French domination and since the cession of Canada to England. That. Catholic Emigration from Quebec went on, at an increasing rate, from year to year, since the years 1837 and 1838, till the very end of the decenniad 1860-70, at which time it seems to have entered in a period of some decrease. By making use from the beginning of the births and deaths tables already men- tioned, and of the figures representing, from time to time, the number of Catho- lie immigrants arrived in C>uei)ec. the de- ficit indicated, from year to year, from the grand result of the excess of births ovei deaths, plus the immigration, would repre- sent the actual number of emigrants who have left the country ; to wliich the natu- ral increase of the said Emigration abioad must be found and added to make up the grand total lost from both sources. The numbers to be got by comparative oalcula tion, the errors incident to the recording of all statistics and the small amount of increase or deficit arising from other causes would not materially alter the result, the possible maximum (.f error being insignificant as compared with the large and exactly ascertained figures. I hbve just written so much to show what an inside view of the movements of our people may be obUuned by these records, the study of which explains the large de- ficit which of late years has taken place in the increase of our Quebec population. Thia argues the accuracy of the '>i8U8, inas- much as the result of deficit, adu d to the Census figures, reaches at near as can be the former normal rate of increoM. I am not of course now at liberty to anti pate the publication of the details. If the results of the most carefully taken Census ever attempted in Canada, lo^i^'y supported by the notorious facts of coin- cident events concerning the movementa of our population, and sustained by the records of the past, cannot obtain credence at this moment, they will in time to come. The triumph of truth over delusion, popular infatuation and local prejudices, if retarded, cannot be for ever prevented. As n. last word, may 1 be allowed to re- mark that it matters very little whether returns of a Census are published a few months sooner or later, but the essential point its, on the contrary, that time should beftaken to have them caref'illy prepared and made as accurate as possible. UtatLt- tics are to last for ever, and, therefore, ought to be a work of patience and care not to be compromised by undue haste. Very few men appreciate the amount of labor necessary to complete work of this kind ; Mr. llarvey does ap- preciate it, in a friendly and gentlemanly manner anc) I thank him for that. It is a common complaint in Europe that the harrassment, to wliich othcial statists are subjected from the craving for news, is one of the m.^st fatal causes th it retards thfe progress of the science and endangers the results of statistical labours. J. C. TACUE. ?,: , ; .. ta*: I I