------+-----------------+-------------------+---------------+-------------
|Number of |Numerical Increase | |
|Paupers relieved,| and Decrease. |Annual Increase|Increase per
Years.| Quarters |+ denotes Increase.| and Decrease |Cent. from
| ending Lady-day.|* „ Decrease.| per Cent. |1840 to 1848
------+-----------------+-------------------+---------------+ = 56.
1840 | 1,199,529 | | | Annual
1841 | 1,299,048 | + 99,519 | + 8 | Increase,
1842 | 1,427,187 | + 128,139 | + 10 | 7 per Cent.
1843 | 1,539,490 | + 112,303 | + 8 |
1844 | 1,477,561 | + 938,071 | + 60 |
1845 | 1,470,970 | * 6,591 | * 0·4 |
1846 | 1,332,089 | * 38,881 | * 3 |
1847 | 1,721,350 | + 389,261 | + 29 |
1848 | 1,876,541 | + 155,191 | + 9 |
------+-----------------+-------------------+---------------+-----------
Here, then, we have an increase of 56 per cent. in less than ten years,
though the increase of the population of England and Wales, in the same
time, was but 13 per cent.; and let it be remembered that the increase
of upwards of 650,000 paupers, in nine years, has accrued since the New
Poor Law has been in what may be considered full working; a law which
many were confident would result in a diminution of pauperism, and
which certainly cannot be charged with offering the least encouragement
to it. Still in _nine_ years, our poverty increases while our wealth
increases, and our paupers grow nearly four times as quick as our
people, while the profits on trade nearly double themselves in little
more than a quarter of a century.