EARLY STATISTICS.—PARISH REGISTERS

In reference to the observations of your correspondent "E.R.J.H.," he will find, upon closer examination, that no comparison approaching to accuracy can be made between the population of any place at different periods of the seventeenth century, founded upon the entries in parish registers of baptisms, births, or marriages. In 1653 the ecclesiastical registers ceased to contain much of the information they had before given. In that year was passed, "An Act how Marriages shall be solemnised and registered, and also for a Register of Births and Burials;" which first introduced registers of birth…