[102] Select Committee on Metropolitan Local Government. [103] See P.P. 1867-8, vol. lviii. Return of Inspectors of Nuisances, &c., 1866. [104] Select Committee on Metropolitan Local Government, 1866. [105] P.P. 1867, vol. xxxvii. [106] P.P., vol. xxxvii. p. 275. [107] 29 and 30 Vic. cap. 90. [108] 29 and 30 Vic. cap. 122. [109] 6 and 7 Wm. IV. cap. 86. [110] See Report of the Metropolitan Asylums Board for 1886-7. [111] See the Edinburgh Review, January, 1903. [112] 30 and 31 Vic. cap. 103. [113] 30 and 31 Vic. cap. 146. [114] Report of Select Committee on the working of the Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act, 1882, p. iii. [115] Ibid., p. iv. [116] P.P. 1868-69, vol. 32. CHAPTER IV 1871-1880 IN 1871, the decennial Census once more afforded reliable information as to the population of London, and gave the means of ascertaining much else of the greatest value. The population had gone up to 3,254,260 in 1871, from the 2,808,862 it had been in 1861, an increase of 445,398. But the rate of increase was declining. The decennial increase of population which had been 21·2 in 1841-1851, 18·7 in 1851-1861, had further declined to 16·1 in 1871. The returns showed that London contained 2,055,576 persons born within its own limits, and 1,198,684 persons born outside its borders. "Whence came these multitudes of both sexes, equal in themselves, without counting those born there, to a number greater than the inhabitants of any other European city?" More than 607,000 of them came from the chiefly agricultural eastern, south-eastern, and south-midland counties surrounding the metropolis. A large contingent of 147,000 was drawn from Devonshire, Wiltshire, Somersetshire, and the other south-western counties. The west-midland counties sent up 84,000. 41,000 persons had come from Scotland, 91,000 from Ireland, 20,000 from the Colonies, and 66,000 from foreign parts. In fact, over 37 per cent. of the population of London in 1871 were immigrants into the great metropolis--a great rushing river of humanity. The returns were also of special interest in showing the changes in the distribution of the population. Speaking broadly, the previous movements were being continued--a diminishing population in the central parts, an increasing population in the outer parts. It appeared to be inevitable that-- "As the trade of London continued to increase, so the districts which lay close to the great centres of business must be expected to be occupied more and more with warehouses, and less and less with the miserable dwelling-houses which had hitherto sheltered its poor and working-class population." The diminution of the population of the central parts of London was in no way a symptom of decay: it was, in reality, proof of the reverse, being the result of increasing trade, commerce, and wealth, which required more house accommodation for the carrying on of their enormous operations.