dently of a difference in name) that one ecclesiastical parish was composed of two or more civil parishes, or parts of parishes; and more frequently, on the other hand, that two or more ecclesiastical parishes, or pails of parishes, were comprised in a single civil parish.
It may further be remarked that, in the Roman Catholic Church, a parochial division is adopted totally distinct from the ecclesiastical or civil.
For the purpose, therefore, of avoiding confusion, and of enabling the visiting Commissioner to ascertain each particular ecclesiastical parish upon which he had to report, we applied to the registrars of the several dioceses in Ireland, and, with two exceptions, we obtained from all of them returns, specifying, among other things, the names of the several parochial benefices within the diocese; of the parishes forming each benefice; and of the townlands over which each of such parishes extends.
By a comparison of these with the names of the townlands in the population returns of 1831, aided by oral evidence received on the spot, the visiting Com¬ missioners were enabled to ascertain in every case the name and territorial boun¬ daries of each parish, according to the ecclesiastical division, and to assign to each its proper population; and in those cases where he was without the aid of the registrar's return, he was able to obtain the requisite information as to town-lands from the tithe composition book deposited in the parish, or from oral evidence.
With respect to the several statistical matters (apart from the census) em¬ braced within the scope of the Inquiry, the Commissioners, with the aid of the documentary information previously supplied to them, and of the evidence resorted to on the spot, have succeeded in obtaining satisfactory results ; and accordingly they do not feel it to be necessary to state, Avith more minuteness than has been already done, the particular mode of investigation adopted by them for that pur¬ pose.
With regard, however, to the census,—a subject of inquiry upon Avhich, from its oAvn nature, rigid accuracy is not easily insured, even Avhere nothing beyond a simple enumeration is involved,—Ave Avill now submit a few details explanatory of the process through which the results in the present instance have been obtained.
As a general rule, (subject, hoAvever, to exceptions hereafter mentioned,) the enumerator's return for 1831 has been acted upon as conclusive evidence of the total number in that year of the inhabitants of each parish; but Avith respect to the enumerator's classification of those inhabitants into the several religious denomi¬ nations, the Commissioner holding the Inquiry received and invited all such evidence from the parties attending before him as might enable him to correct any errors committed by the enumerator.
Having accordingly corrected any errors that might be pointed out, the Commissioner received the return, thus classified, as a census of the population of the parish in the year 1831, founded, so far as numbers Avere concerned, upon actual enumeration; and if no satisfactory original census of the present population of the parish, similarly classified, Avas tendered to him, he proceeded to supply its place through the following process of compu¬ tation :
Before the visiting Commissioners had proceeded to make their local Inqui¬ ries, Ave obtained, by a comparison of the detailed returns of the population of Ireland contained in the abstracts of the censuses of 1821 and 1831, printed by order of the House of Commons, the ratio of increase or diminution of the population that was found upon such comparison to have actually prevailed between those years,—first, in the rural districts of each particular county, and next in all towns therein having a population of not less than 2,000 inhabitants; and proceeding upon the assumption that the ratio so ascer¬ tained had continued undisturbed up to the year 1834, we caused Tables to be framed showing the proportionate increase or diminution of the population of such rural districts and toAvns respectively, which, according to that assumption, might be estimated to have taken place betAveen the years 1831 and 1834.
By a reference to these Tables, the Commissioner was enabled at once to determine the extent to which he was to add to, or deduct from, the numbers of the popu¬ lation of any particular parish as given in the census of 1831.
