h in a modified degree, in the case of all the great English
cities.

During the period 1891-1901 five English and five Welsh counties
showed a decrease per cent in the population. The English counties
were:--

+--------------------+-------------------------+------------+
| |Decrease or Increase(+). | Decrease. |
| +------------+------------+ 1891-1901. |
| | 1871-1881. | 1881-1891. | |
+--------------------+------------+------------+------------+
| Huntingdonshire | 8.29 | 5.51 | 7.04 |
| Rutland | 1.55 | 3.73 | 5.59 |
| Westmorland | 1.25 | +2.96 | 2.73 |
| Oxfordshire | +1.27 | +3.64 | 1.70 |
| Herefordshire | 3.26 | 4.02 | 1.62 |
+--------------------+------------+------------+------------+

Urban and rural districts.

The Welsh counties were Montgomeryshire, Cardiganshire, Flintshire,
Merionethshire and Brecknockshire, the first-named showing the highest
decrease, 5.08%, in 1891-1901. These counties are principally
agricultural, and it is in agricultural districts elsewhere that the
increase of population is slightest. But in 1871-1881 a decrease was
found in the case of fifteen counties in all, and in 1881-1891 in the
case of thirteen, whereas in 1891-1901, although Radnorshire, which
returned a decrease previously, now returned an abnormal increase
owing to the temporary employment of workmen on the construction of
the Birmingham waterworks, the number fell to 10, and the average
percentage also fell. This suggested some tendency to return to a
state of equilibrium as between urban and rural districts. This is in
a measure borne out by the movement of population in the districts
classed as purely rural in 1901. In these there was an increase per
cent of 14.2 in 1811-1821, which fell off to 2.8 in 1841-1851. A
decrease then set in and grew from 0.2 in 1851-1861 to 0.67 in
1881-1891, but in 1891-1901 an increase, 1.95, was once more recorded.
But the drain on the rural population continued heavy, for in the same
purely rural area, which had a population in 1901 of 1,330,319, the
excess of births over deaths was 150,437, but the actual increase of
population was only 25,492, leaving a heavy loss (9.6%) to be
accounted for by