Summary of the Census.

GREAT BRITAIN AND ISLANDS IN THE BRITISH SEAS.

COMPARATIVE POPULATION.*

* This Return includes only such part of the Army, Navy, and Merchant Seamen, as were at the time of the Census within the Kingdom on shore.

According to the census of 1801, the population of England was 8,331,434, and the increase from 1801 to 1811 was 141 per cent. The population of Wales in 1801, was 541,546; increase the next ten years, 13 per cent. England and Wales, in 1801, 8,872,980; increase the next ten years, 14 per cent. Scotland, in 1801, 1,599,068; increase in the next ten years, 14 per cent. Total population of Great Britain in 1801, 10,472,048; increase in the next ten years, 14 per cent.

THE NOVEMBER METEORS.

THE London Times publishes the following abstract of an interesting communication by Mr. Galloway on the present state of our knowledge relative to shooting-stars, which was read before the Astronomical Society on the 8th of January, 1841, in which the results of the principal observations on record and the deductions to which they have led are brought together and considered, and the several theories which have been proposed with a view to explain the nature of this mysterious class of phenomena are collected and compared. M. Chladni's celebrated work, published in 1794, contains a catalogue of all the observations which had then been recorded upon the phenomena of fireballs, which meteors, he considered, had not their origin in the terrestrial atmosphere, but were masses moving through the planetary sphere with velocities equal to those of the planets themselves, and which, on entering the earth's atmosphere, became incandescent and luminous;

thus accounting for the scattered masses of stone and iron which reached the surface of the earth, and were found to present an almost perfect similarity of constitution wherever they were found, differing widely from that of any substance found on the earth. And the close resemblance between fire-balls or aerolites and shooting-stars led M. Chladni to ascribe a similar origin to the latter class of phenomena. No observations, however, had then been made for the purpose of determining the altitudes, velocities, and paths of the shooting-stars; and observations in order to ascertain these points, without a knowledge of which the question of the existence of these meteors within or beyond the atmosphere could not be solved, were undertaken in 1798 by Brandes and Benzenberg, in Germany; by M. Quetelet, in 1824, in Belgium; and by M. Wartmann, in Switzerland, on the 10th of August, 1838, the anniversary of the other great meteoric epoch in the year. The results of the first series of observations are stated by Mr. Galloway to have been as follow: -The computed altitude of the lowest of the meteors observed was about 6 English miles; there were 7 under 45 miles, 9 between 45 and 90 miles, 6 above 90 miles, and one had an altitude of about 140 miles. From one observation the velocity of 25 miles in a second was deduced, from the other a velocity of from 17 to 21 miles, and the most remarkable result, says Mr. Galloway, was, that at least one of the meteors moved upwards, or from the earth. The similarity between fire-balls and shooting-stars in respect to altitude and velocity was thus fully established.

Another series of observations was conducted by Brandes from April to October, 1823, during which period about 1,800 shooting-stars were observed at the different stations of observation, 98 of which had been observed simultaneously at more than one station. The altitudes of 4 of these were computed to be under 15 English miles; of 15 between 15 and 30 miles; of 22 between 30 and 45 miles (the computed limit of the atmosphere ;) of 35 between 45 and 70 miles; of 13 between 70 and 90 miles; and of 11 above 90 miles; of which latter meteors 2 had an elevation of above 140 miles, 1 of 220, 1 of 280, and 1 whose height was computed to exceed 460 miles. Thirty-six orbits, continues Mr. Galloway, were obtained; in 26 of which the direction of the meteor was downwards, in 1 horizontal, and in the remaining 9 more or less upwards. In 3 cases only the observations afforded data for determining the velocity; and the results were 23, 28, and 37 English miles in a second, the last, as Mr. Galloway remarks, being nearly double the velocity of the earth in its orbit; and the motion of the meteors generally was contrary to the motion of the earth. Then came the observations of M. Quetelet, which may be found in the Annuaire de Bruxelles for 1837. He obtained six corresponding observations, from which the velocity of the meteors was deduced, and the results varied from 10 to 25 English miles in a second, giving a mean velocity of 17 miles little less than that of the earth in its annual course. And the last set of corresponding observations noticed in the paper was that of M. Wartmann, recorded in Quetelet's Correspondence Mathématique for July, 1839. They were

made on the 10th of August, by observers at Geneva, and Planchettes, a village 60 miles northward of that city. In the space of 7 1-2 hours, 381 meteors were observed at Geneva, and in that of 5 1-2 hours, 104 were observed at Planchettes. The paths described by the meteors varied from 8 degrees to 70 degrees of angular space; and the average velocity was concluded at 25 degrees per second, the average height at about 550 miles, and the absolute relative velocities of the meteors was computed at 220 miles in a second. The greater number moved in a direction opposite to that of the earth in its orbit, the earth's velocity in which is about 19 miles in a second. So that the absolute velocity of the meteor must have been, observes Mr. Galloway, more than eleven times the orbital velocity of the earth, seven and a half times that of the planet Mercury, and probably greater than that of the comets in their perihelia, or nearest approach to the sun. As regards the epochs of recurrence of the shooting-stars, Mr. Galloway thus remarks: "With respect to the casual observations of the phenomena, the accounts of which are very numerous, the most interesting conclusion which has been inferred from them is the periodical recurrence of shooting-stars in unusual numbers at certain epochs of the year. Of these epochs the most remarkable is that of November, on account of the prodigious number of meteors which have been seen in some years at that time. The principal displays were in 1799, 1832, 1833, and 1834. On the 11th of November, 1799, thousands were observed within a few hours by Humboldt and Bonpland at Cumana; and on the same night by different persons over the whole continent of America, from the borders of Brazil to Labrador; and also in Greenland and Germany. On the 12th of November, 1832, they were seen over the whole of the north of Europe; and on the 12th of November, 1833, the stupendous exhibition took place in North America, which has been so often described. From the accounts of this phenomenon collected by Professor Olmsted, M. Arago computed that the number of meteors on this night amounted to 240,000. In 1834 a similar phenomenon recurred on the night of the 15th of November, but on this occasion the meteors were of a smaller size. In 1835, 1836, and 1838, shooting-stars were observed on the night of the 13th of November, in different parts of the world; but though diligently looked for on the same night in the last few years, do not appear to have been more numerous than on other nights about the same season; a circumstance which has shaken the faith of many in their periodicity."

The different theories which have been proposed to explain the origin and phenomena of the shooting-stars are then stated by Mr. Galloway. The following are the principal of these theories: 1. That the shootingstars and fire-balls are substances projected from volcanoes in the moon. 2. That they are the fragments of a large planet burst into pieces by some internal explosion, of which Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta are here supposed to be the principal remaining portions, the smaller fragments continuing to circulate about the sun; and the theory supposes, that when they approach the region of space through which the earth is moving,

they enter the atmosphere, become incandescent, and emit a vivid light. 3. That the meteors have their origin in the zodiacal light. 4. That independently of the planets there exists in the planetary regions myriads of small bodies which circulate about the sun, generally in groups or zones, and that one of these zones intersects the ecliptic about the place through which the earth passes in November. This hypothesis was suggested by Chladni, and adopted by Arago and other eminent astronomers. And 5, the hypothesis of Capocci, of Naples, who regards the aurora borealis, shooting-stars, aerolites, and comets, as having all the same origin, and as resulting from the aggregation of cosmical atoms brought into union by magnetic attraction; the introduction of magnetic forces among the particles being the only feature in which this theory differs from that of M. Chladni. This theory is connected with a field of very interesting inquiry, viz., the connexion between the phenomena of shooting-stars and the aurora borealis, which magnificent phenomenon there seems great reason to regard as being also periodical

A newspaper is not the proper place in which to discuss the respective merits of these several theories; great difficulties attend every hypothesis hitherto proposed; and beyond the facts that the shootingstars move with prodigious velocity, and in a direction contrary to that of the earth in its orbit, and appear at great altitudes, often beyond the atmosphere which surrounds our globe, and that their phenomena possess some features in common with aerolites or fire-balls, with comets, and with the aurora, they are involved in profound mystery.

FRENCH COMMERCE,

THE Minister of Commerce has just published the general account of the trade of France for 1840, from which we make the following ex

The foreign commerce of France during 1840 increased in regular progression. The aggregate amount was 2,068,000,000f., being greater than in any preceding year, as will appear by the following table:

francs.

1826 1,126,000,000

Imports and Exports united.

francs.

1831 1,131,000,000

francs.

1836 1,867,000,000 1827 1,168,000,000 1832 1,349,000,000 1837 1,566,000,000 1828 1,218,000,000 1833 1,459,000,000 1838 1,896,000,000 1829 1,224,000,000 1834 1,435,000,000 1839 1,950,000,000 1835 1,595,000,000 1840 2,068,000,000

1830 1,211,000,000

T'als 5,947,000,000 1st period.

2d 6,969,000,000 period.

3d 9,347,000,000 period.