If it be objected that the average capacity of Dissenting buildings has increased of late years, there are two answers—first, there is no evidence of such increase to any material extent; and, secondly, that there is an antagonistic influence at work, which would counterbalance such increase if it existed. It must be clear that the number of “causes” which annually collapse becomes greater in the same ratio as the congregations themselves increase. Thus, almost the same number of places were licensed in the ten years ending 1810 as in the same period ending 1850; but the number of places discontinued out of 13,000 would obviously be less than the number discontinued out of, say 18,500; so that unless the new Dissenting meeting-houses are larger nowadays than was formerly the case, the amount of sittings attributed to the latter periods is too large, rather than too small. We have now materials for the reconstruction of our table:— Population. Church Dissenting Total Sittings. Sittings. Sittings. 1801 8,892,536 3,024,615 2,136,339 5,160,954 Subsequent decennial increase:— 1811 1,271,720 55,250 381,875 437,125 1821 1,835,930 96,900 710,664 807,564 1831 1,896,561 276,250 740,319 1,016,569 1841 2,017,351 667,250 519,097 1,186,347 1851 2,013,161 1,197,650 406,354 1,604,004 Total 9,035,073 2,293,300 2,758,309 5,051,609 Increase Total 17,927,609 5,317,915 4,894,648 10,212,583 The number of sittings per thousand of the population was, at the different periods, as follows:— ACCORDING TO THE ABOVE ACCORDING TO MR. MANN’S TABLE. TABLE. Church. Dissent. Church. Dissent. 1801 340 240 482 99 1811 303 247 424 120 1821 264 269 363 145 1831 248 285 323 181 1841 258 282 300 238 1851 297 273 297 273 Thus it will be seen that every inference drawn from Mr. Mann’s tables has proved false. Dissent has _not_, during the half century, supplied four times as much new accommodation as the Church—if it has supplied any more at all, the excess does not amount to a fourth. Dissent has _not_, during the last 20 years, supplied three times as much accommodation as the Church—it has barely supplied half as much. Dissent is _not_ advancing at a pace twice as rapid as the Church; on the contrary, the Church is advancing at nearly three times the speed of Dissent.