|
Great Britain was sl ow to follow suit.
In Britain some believed, like those in the United States, that any
type of people count was sacrilegious. This view was used as an
argument against census taking in Britain when a Bill was introduced
into the House of Commons in 1753 to carry out an annual Census. The
people of Newcastle-upon-Tyne ‘looked upon the proposal as ominous
and feared… an epidemical distemper should follow the numbering’,
according to Matthew Ridley, their MP. Most opposition, however, was
concerned with a fear that the results would disclose to foreign
enemies the weakness of the country or that the exercise would
impair individual liberty and it was defeated in the Lords.
Towards the end of the 18th Century,
however, it became increasingly obvious that nobody had any idea
about the number of people living in the British Isles. Some said
the population of Britain was rising while others were sure it was
falling.
Opposition to an official census
finally withered away after the famous demographer Thomas Malthus
published his essay on the 'principle of population' in 1798.
Malthus caused great concern by suggesting that population growth
would soon outstrip supplies of food and other resources. Unable to
support itself, Britain would be hit by famine, disease and other
disasters.
Frightened by this alarmist view of the
future, people began to see the need for a census. Parliament passed
the Census Act in 1800 and the first official Census in England and
Wales was held on 10 March 1801.
|
