During the Civil Wars and the Protectorate, few parochial registers were kept with any degree of accuracy; indeed, in many parishes they are altogether defective at that period, owing to the temporary expulsion of the clergy from their benefices. It is not improbable, therefore, that the remarkable decrease of baptismal entries in the register book of Chart next Sutton Valence may have arisen partly from imperfect registration, as well as from the other causes suggested. But the trifling increase observable after the Restoration undoubtedly points to the conclusion arrived at by your corespondent--that a great diminution had taken place in the population of the parish: and Mr. Rickman's estimate above referred to gives a result for the entire county, which, if it does not fully establish the supposed decrease, shows at least that the registers of other Kentish parishes were affected in a similar manner. The following is the estimated population of Kent, deduced from the baptisms, burials, and marriages, by Mr. Rickman:-- A.D. Population 1570 136,710 1600 161,236 1630 189,212 1670 167,398 1700 157,833 1750 181,267 The population enumerated in 1801 was 307,624, which had increased to 548,337 in 1841. Applying the average of England to the parish {443} of Chart, the 120 baptisms in the years 1640-1659, if representing the actual births, would indicate a population of about 200 during that period; while the 246 entries in the previous twenty years would give upwards of 400 inhabitants. According to the several censuses, Chart contained 381 persons in 1801, and 424, 500, 610, 604, respectively, at the subsequent decades. While on the subject of parish registers, I may add, that a scheme has been propounded by the Rev. E. Wyatt Edgell, in a paper read before the Statistical Society, for transcribing and printing in a convenient form the whole of the extant parish register books of England and Wales, thus concentrating those valuable records, and preserving, before it is too late, their contents from the effects of time and accidental injuries. The want of funds to defray the cost of copying and printing is the one great difficulty of the plan. JAMES T. HAMMACK. April 2. * * * * * EARLY STATISTICS.--PARISH REGISTERS.