History of the National progress during the last twenty years page 3

If we except the domestic servants, the army and navy, and the milliners and dressmakers, each of the persons engaged in most of the above occupations may, on the average, be taken as supporting a family of four persons. On each of these leading trades or occupations, therefore, with the exceptions mentioned, it may be assumed that there were probably more than 400,000 persons dependent. There were, further, seventeen special trades or occupations, each giving employment to from 50,000 to 100,000 persons, each of which probably afforded subsistence to between 200,000 and 400,000 persons. The bricklayers numbered 99,984 in 1871, and 79,458 in 1861; the gardeners, 98,069 in 1871, and 78,533 in 1861; the masons and paviors, 95,243 in 1871, and 84,434 in 1861. Between the same dates those engaged in the worsted manufacture increased from 79,242 to 94,766; messengers and porters, from 75,629 to 93,182; commercial clerks, from 55,931 to 91,042; shirtmakers and seamstresses, from 76,493 to 80,730; charwomen, from 65,273 to 77,650; publicans and innkeepers from 53,713 to 77,049; butchers and meat salesmen, from 68,114 to 75,847; drapers, from 57,653 to 74,337; carmen and draymen, from 67,651 to 74,244; governesses and tutors, from 49,743 to 68,595; bakers, from 54,140 to 59,066; schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, from 56,139 to 58,152; and cabinet-makers and upholsterers, from 41,037 to 56,945. Those engaged in the silk manufacture declined in number from 101,678 in 1861, to 75,180 in 1871.

In addition to the occupations we have here mentioned, there were ninety-six other occupations or trades employing over 10,000 persons, but under 50,000. The numbers in 1871 were, in the majority of instances, considerably larger than in 1861.

Of the inhabitants of the United Kingdom, therefore, as a whole, whether they be contemplated in their distribution over the town and the country districts, or in their classification according to the occupations they followed, it is clear that, as they advanced in the nineteenth century, they became, more particularly in Great Britain, more and more devoted to manufactures and commerce, and less and less to agriculture. And this conclusion is completely confirmed by other circumstances, especially by the character of the imports and exports, which we shall presently proceed to consider.