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246 WILLIAMS' CASE.
I am not aware that any observations have been made any-
where in the United States, as to the average rate of mortality,
from which a table of the expectation of human life at the various
ages could be formed; except those before mentioned of the city
of Philadelphia. A sensible writer has, however, intimated, that
he had, for some years, been endeavouring to collect data upon
which to found a calculation of the average duration of life in the
southern Atlantic states, comprising Georgia, the Carolinas, and
Virginia, (a) But as it would seem the only materials which
have, as yet, been collected which would be likely to afford any
aid in the formation of such a table, are the few and imperfect bills
of mortality which have been kept in some of the cities; (6) the
reports of the surgeons of the army as to the health of the troops
at the places where detachments of them have been stationed, the
pension list, and the census of the Union.
The Roman census was a numbering of the people with a valua-
tion of their fortunes; which, although said to have been made
every five years, was not always taken at certain intervals; and
was sometimes omitted altogether. It does not, however, appear
to have been, in fact, an enumeration of all the inhabitants, but
was merely a numbering and classing of the citizens of Rome, and
of the colonial cities; (e) and, being commensurate with property,
power, and taxation, seems to have been, in many respects, more
like what, in Maryland, is called an assessment law for the valua-
tion of real and personal property for the purpose of taxing it,
than such a census as is directed to be taken by the constitution of
the United States, (d) It is said that a census of the inhabitants
of England was taken in the time of Henry the 8th, the returns of
which have been lost, (e) In the year 1753, a bill was presented
to the House of Commons proposing to have a census taken of the
people of England, but was rejected. (f) Since that time, how-
ever, there have been three census taken, one in 1801, another in
1811, and a third in 1821. (g) Before the adoption of the pre-
sent constitution of the United States, Congress repeatedly recom-
mended to the several states to take measures to ascertain the
number of their inhabitants; (h) with which recommendation
(a) 2 Southern Review, 175.—(6) Seybert Stat. Ann. 49.—(c) Adams' Rom. Ant.
St, 184.—(d) Gibbon's Decl, and Fall Horn., c. 2, c. 6, and c. 17; 1 Niebuhr's Hist.
Rome, 840, 347.—(e) Seybert Stat. Ann. 17.—(f) Smollet's Hist, Eng. ch. 8.—
(f) Miller's His. Or, Brit. 470, 569; Seybert Stat. Ann. 25, 28; 8 Amer. Quart
Review, 388.—(k) Journ. Cong, 20 December, 1770; 1 April, 1782; 17 February,
1783; 24 September, 1785,
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