Gents Mag 1812 part 2 p.236

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	Gentleman's Magazine 1812 part 2 p.236 County might be empowered to annex all other Extra-Parochial places to adjoining Parishes, for the purposes above described. Districts of larger extent may be found, which, under the name of Liberties, interrupt the general course of law, as affecting Hundreds, in like manner as Extra-Parochial places that of Parishes. In Dorsetshire, where this inconvenience chiefly prevails, the grants of some of these Liberties are dates as late as the reign of Henry VIII. and even of Elizabeth. The proper remedy for the inconveniences arising out of these improvident grants, might be, to subject them to abolition by the County Magistrates, whenever, by default in the appointment of proper officers, these Liberties (under whatever title) are found to obstruct the due administration of justice, or of the laws. 'Other deformities there are in the territorial arrangement of England and Wales, which may be deemed the more worthy of attention, as of more easy remedy. Such have been already mentioned as causing Duplicate Returns, where Parishes extend into more Counties, or into more Hundreds, than one. The number of places of the first class, in so far as they have been noted, is 134; scarcely any County not affording an instance, and some having Parishes intermixed with every surrounding County. The Parishes which extend into more Hundreds or Divisions than one, are much more numerous; and still more considerable is the number of those places which lie at a distance from their own County or Hundred, to the frequent inconvenience of the inhabitants and of the publick. Indeed several of the Hundreds are so strangely scattered, that they might be advantageously merged in others, as, from the conjoint name of some Hundreds, seems formerly to have been done. Instances of the inconvenience here alluded to, and of the remedy, are most frequent in Wiltshire. Winkley Hundrred in Somersetshire, Farringdon Hundred in Berkshire, that of Barton-Stracey in Hampshire, and some others, are remarkable instances of irregularity still in existence. The correction of all these anomalies might be referred to the County Magistrates, who alone could accurately point them out, and who best know, by experience, how far such places are inconvenient to the inhabitants, or to the publick at large. 'The enumeration of the whole Population may be considered as complete, no place being known finally to have omitted making Return. In cases where the name of a place differs from the Abstract of 1801, or where two places are included under one title, all the names are now entered, with an explanatory remark: and the same thing has been done in cases where any place has been transferred from one Hundred to another. 'The proportion of the Sexes remains much the same as in 1801, being nearly as 10 Males to 11 Females of the Resident Population, and nearly equal in the General Total. The increase of the Military, and of Sailors, has indeed increased the number of Males; but it is obvious that this increase has not been entirely furnished by Great Britain, many Natives of Ireland, as well as Foreigners, being included in the Army, in the Navy, and among those who navigate Registered Shipping. 'In conclusion, it is proper to mention, that where the Total of any County, as laid before Parliament in February 1812, shall be found to differ from the Total in the present Volume, the latter is to be considered as the corrected Total, some alterations, necessary from the discovery of duplicate entries, of omissions, and of clerical errors, having occurred on the final revision of the Work.'

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