[162] See Report of Royal Commission on the Amalgamation of the City and County of London, 1894. [163] Hansard, 1884, vol. cclxxxiv. [164] By the Diseases Prevention (Metropolis) Act, 1883, 46 and 47 Vic. cap. 35. [165] The total net expenditure was £401,000 in 1885. [166] Hansard, vol. ccxxix. p. 889. [167] Lords' Committee on Sweating, P.P. 1890, vol. 17. [168] Hansard, p. 1663, March 19, 1888. [169] See the last Report of the Board. [170] 53 & 54 Vic., cap. 70. [171] The Customs and Inland Revenue Act, 1890, 53 & 54 Vic. cap. 8. [172] See speech by Sir L. Playfair in House of Commons, March 4, 1884.--Hansard, p. 529. [173] See Report from Royal Commission on Tuberculosis, 1898. CHAPTER VI 1891-1901 IN 1891 the census once more gave authoritative figures as to the population of the metropolis of London. The population had increased from 3,830,297 to 4,228,317. The increase had been in a somewhat lower ratio than the population of England and Wales as a whole, and the fact was notable inasmuch as it was the first time that such a phenomenon had presented itself, London having been found in every preceding intercensal period to have gained more or less in its proportions as compared with the country at large. The movements of population had followed very much the same lines as in the previous decade. In the central parts--under the pressure of the great economic forces--the population had increased. In the outer parts it had increased, but "the wide belt of suburbs was beginning to show some signs of repletion." Immigration into London had greatly diminished in the decade. Fewer immigrants had come from the various counties of England and Wales, and the proportion of the inhabitants of London who had been born elsewhere had fallen from 308 persons per 1,000 in 1881 to 283 in 1891. Thus the influx of country people, mostly in the prime of life, and the admixture of fresh country blood into the urban population of London was undergoing diminution--a circumstance which, in the long run, would materially influence the physique of the people. Three important facts came into view with the figures set out in the census, giving food for thoughtful minds as regarded the future of London. The first was that the rate of increase of the population had again slackened off. The flood tide of population was not now flowing so fast. The second was that the population was being affected by migration. The natural increase of the population had been 510,384, the actual increase 396,199--so that London had lost by the excess of emigration over immigration more than 114,000 persons. This was the first time such an event had happened.