7 NOVEMBER 1846, Page 16

THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL'S REPORTS, 1 8 4 4-1 8 4 5.

In point of variety and attractiveness of subjects, these two volumes scarcely equal the Report of 1843. The merit is, indeed, the same; but there is not so much of direct popular interest in the subjects handled. This, however, is rather a fact than a fault. The most obvious and striking questions deducible from a collection of statistics will first suggest themselves to the mind ; and the earlier treatment is of necessity fresher and broader, if less precise than the subsequent. The more general topics become exhausted ; and though those peculiar ques- tions which it is the business of the Office to report upon may exhibit variety in their details and occasional new points, yet the leading novelty is gone. The interest is comparative for the statist, not broad for the public. Mr. Farr and the gentlemen connected with the Office do their best to remedy this necessary evil, by having recourse to foreign sta- tistics, and by presenting our own in new and useful aspects ; but for purposes of popular notice, though not for public use, it is rather the pressed juice than the gushings of the grape.

It is, however, in this public point of view that the volumes are to be looked at ; and they will then take precedence far in advance of all the blue books and other official emanations, as not only displaying greater literary ability, but more of a philosophical and worldly spirit. We see that we are dealing with men alive to the interests and feelings of life, not with red-tapists, whose whole notions are confined to " this office." Dry as the subject of statistics of necessity is, this feeling of the " nil humanum a me " imparts a frequent interest to the topics handled. Here, for example, is a curious deduction for the married, of the average duration of wedded life, widowers, and widows.

REPORT FOR 1844.

The tables of the mean joint lifetime of males and females show, that in this country husbands and wives married at the age of 25 live, on an average, 27 years together; the widows living rather more than 10 ears (10.4) after their husbands' deaths, and the widowers nearly 9 years (9 3) after their wives' deaths. Where the husband is 40 and the wife 30, the mean term of married life is 21 years; the widows living 13 years after their husbands, and the widowers 5 years after the deaths of their wives. The tables furnish ready answers to a great num- ber of questions of this kind and others, in which two lives are concerned.

The subject of life-insurance is continued from the Report for I843 in that for 1844; and is well worthy of study by all interested. The follow- ing facts on the actual mathematical value of life are drawn from a table (pp. 520-523) which might be advantageously consulted by all who contemplate insuring their lives, in comparison with the different rates of premium actually charged by the insurance-offices. Some will be found, we believe, slightly lower than the mathematical rate; and they must end in failure if offices did not make more than 3 per cent, and the lives were not more select than those in these tables.

REPORT FOR 1844.

Passing over the columns D, N, the columns to the right show the premiums for life-insurance, and the present values of life annuities, without any allowance for the expenses of management, agency, or profits. Thus it will be found, that if 331 men, at the age of 21, paid 11. 12s. 9d. each at that birthday, and the same sum at every future birthday so long as they lived—the money realizing 3 per cent i

per annum interest—it. would amount to 1001. at the death of each; or as is

I

understood in these cases, at the end of the year in which death occurred. If the cost of management were nothing in a mutual life office, 11. 12s. 9d. would be the annual premium to be paid by a male, IL lls. 10d. by a female, for a policy of 1001. The payment of 15s. 9d. by a man, and 16s. 7d. by a woman, would on the same terms, be the premiums for insuring the life, for one year only. If one who wished to insure the life of a boy engagvd to pay to an office the pre- miums in the column commencing with 151. 9s. 5d at birth, 61.2s. 4d. on the first birthday, &e., 138. 6d. on the 15th, &c., 61. Os. 9d. on the 69th, &c., or the pre- miums against each birthday so long as the life should last,—the risk would be covered from year to year, and the transaction might terminate at the end of any year without loss to either party. If the office put on—as is usual with pro- prietary companies-20 or 30 per cent for expenses and profit, the usual profits would be realized; but the addition on this plan should be rather greater than in the case of uniform premiums, as subscribed capital would be required to cover fluctuations in the mortality.

It is remarked by Adam Smith, that the enormous gains of a few in. dividuals in one or two of the professions are in reality only the prizes in

a species of lottery ; that if all the money expended on the education and

maintenance of barristers, for instance, were summed up, with their gains on the other side, it would probably be found that the barristers were losers on the whole. Mr. Farr's remarks on the statistics of deferred annuities show another mode in which this subject may be viewed-the late period in life at which the greater professional income is attained.

REPORT FOR 1844.

Parents and young men are necessarily influenced in selecting a business or profession by other motives than the mere amount of income to be realized; and incomes derived from a trade or a profession depend upon many contingencies: but, as all professional incomes cease at death, they cannot exceed life annuities in value; and it may be of some practical use to show exactly how much life in- comes lose in value by being deferred, and how much this value varies at different ages. A barrister, aged 21, will realize 5,0001. a year for life, commencing at the age of 48; a solicitor, aged 21, will get 2,0001. a year at the age of 30: what is the present value of these expectancies, assuming for the moment that they depend only on the duration of life? The present value of the barrister's expectancy is 23,6521.; of the solicitor's, 26,9891. The barrister's 5,0001. a year, deferred to the age of 48, would be equivalent to 1,129/. a year commencing at the age of 21, and payable at the end of each year.

The influence of deferred receipts on the values of the incomes of physicians and surgeons, clergymen, and persons in business, may be estimated in a similar manner.

The subject of illegitimate births is also continued in the Report of 1844; and, from a more accurate mode of making the entries, the Registrar-General is able to speak more distinctly than before, and give the startling number of 34,796 illegitimate births out of a total of 517,739 births ; or, in other words, that nearly every fif- teenth child born in England is illegitimate. Whether from the ope- ration of the New Poor-law, (which until lately threw the whole onus upon the mother,) or from other causes, lie also infers that the number up to 1844 is increasing ; for we do not find the subject pursued in the last Report. These facts are so contrary to received opinions, and open up questions of so much importance, that we will borrow a table from the volume, exhibitive of the number of illegitimate children in the prin- cipal countries of Europe, which display results equally counter to the general notion. It will be seen that England is worse than Sweden, about which such an outcry was raised a short time since.

REPORT FOR 1844.

The annexed table shows the proportion of legitimate and illegitimate children born in several states of Europe, according to the latest returns which I have been able to procure. They require little comment. In Sardinia and Bavaria, two Roman Catholic countries, the illegitimate children born differ in the propor- tion of 2 to 21 per cent; and equal discrepancies are observed in the Italian and German provinces of the Austrian Empire.

States.

Births.

Proportion of 100 Children born.

Total.

Legitimate.

Illegitimate. Legitimate. illegitimate Sardinia. • • • 1,457,493 • • • 1,427,019 . • • 30,474 . • • 97'909 ..•

2-091 Sweden

476,799

445,510 ... 31,289 ...

93,138

• • •

6-562

Norway 181,363 ... 169,252 ... 12.111 .• • 93'322 • • •

6-678

England 517.739

482,943 ... 34,796 ...

93.279

• .• 6121 Belgium 138,135 ... 128,781 ... 9.354 ...

93-228

• • • 6172 France 982,896 . • . 912,968

69,928

• • .

7.114

Prussia .4 591,505 ... 549,376

42,129 ...

92-878

• .. 7.122 Denmark 64,376 ... 58,355 ... 6,020 .• • 90•649 • • • 9 351 Hanover 55,559 ... 50,072 ... 5.487 ...

90.124

.• • 9'876 Austria 894,711 • . • 792,890 • .. 101,821 ...

88.620

• • •

11.380

Wurtemburg. 75,456 ... 66,597 ... 8,859 ... 88•260 • • . 11140 Saxony 70,094 ... 59,582 ... 10,512 ...

85.003

... 14'997

Bavaria

149,185 ... 118,456 ... 30,729 ...

79-402

• • • 20'598 The subject might be pursued into its details, showing the proportion which one country or district bears to another. Thus, while in the city of London the illegitimate births are only in the proportion of 0.6 to the 100, in Nottingham they are as 12.2. A variety of curious facts might also be drawn forth in reference to suicides, murders, and deaths by vio- lence ; as well as from the causes of death, now exhibited in minute detail. These topics would extend this notice to greater length than the generality of readers might desire ; and births, deaths, and marriages, would carry us over ground we have travelled before. Two points, however, may be stated : it is the Registrar's opinion that the immigration from Ireland and Scotland replaces the English emigration to the Colonies ; and the greatest number of marriages that ever took place was in the prosperous year 1844-" Ephraim waxing fat."

• The apparent discrepancy In the numbers arises from some examples being single

years, others the aggregate of a series of years.