The INCREASE OF POPULATION, though not a perfect test of general prosperity, yet indicates that the employments which engage the attention of the inhabitants of any given district are flourishing, that there is no such apprehended deficiency of the articles of wealth as seriously to check marriage, and that there is an absence of some of those evils which are constantly at work to retard the replenishment of the earth by the human family. For the statistics of population in this county I refer the reader to Table 1, in the Appendix, from which he will perceive that a continuous, and in some instances a rapid increase has taken place in the manufacturing districts. Until the last ten years, however, the increase of population in this county, though exceeding that of many counties, did not quite come up to the average increase of the entire kingdom. The rate of increase from 1801 to 1811, was— Worcestershire, 15 per cent. England, 14½ per cent. 1811 to 1821 „ 15 „ „ 17½ „ 1821 to 1831 ,, 15 „ „ 16 „ 1831 to 1841 „ 10.4 „ „ 14.5 „ From 1841 to 1851, the rate of increase for Worcestershire was slightly above the average, being as nearly as possible 13 per cent., while that of England, as a whole, had declined, and was only about 12.7. This is a fact upon which no interpretation can be put, except such as is flattering to the condition and prospects of our county. EMIGRATION has been slowly going on from our manufacturing districts during the last fifteen years, but there has been no remarkable exodus at any particular period. Many farm labourers and small occupants of land have also been seduced by the Mormons to seek an imaginary paradise in the Far West. Even this desultory emigration cannot but be beneficial. Great Britain has yet, however, to acquire the practical wisdom of the ancients in carrying out a systematic colonization, and it still remains for her people to perform the noble mission which their national advantages and insular position seem to assign them—that of peopling the solitudes of the earth with a race which has hitherto proved equal to all difficulties, and who would carry with them the laws of an Alfred, the language of a Shakspere, and, above all, the ennobling influences of the Christian religion.