The Press. — London, England, 1854-01-28 00:00:00

■ 74 Marlborough Orion New ship at Devonport (now Conqueror) New ship at Chatham (now (Hero) New ship at Pembroke (sow Repulse) 90 . 80} Vogue iii) 0401411 11 iP8. Blenheim - ••• • Edinburgh This list comprises am. the elite for the creation of which the Times claim* cretit for the present Board of Admiralty, with the ex ception of four of 50 guns, and one of 30, viz., the Forte, Chesa) , eake, Curaqoa, St. Fiorenzo, and Euryalus, which were at that time on the stocks. PREMIUMS ON POISONING. Wn have dwelt, in a former article, on the demoralising effect of those associations for the promotion of poisoning, commonly entitled burial clubs. We have shown that direct and premeditated murder is their result in many eases—indirect murder, through neglect, in many more—and the discouragement of natural affection between parents and children in all. This last result follows even where those who experience it may be little aware of its influence. There is always a tendency on the part of persons whose lives+ are passed in a hard struggle against poverty to undervalue life itself, and to regard the death of infants as a benefit both to themselves and thei► relatives This tendency is augmented and developed by the existence of death premiums. For, be it observed, the labourer is in any ease a gainer pecuniarily by the decease of one of his children. The expenses of burial axe far from equivalent to the expenses of maintenance for any considerable period. The immediate demand, indeed, may press hardly ; but in the long run there is no loss. And, when a large and instant profit ensues on the bereavement of the parent, it can scarcely be doubted that in numerous instances such bereavement is rather envied than deplored by neighbours similarly circumstanced. Once more hear Mr. CLAY. " That the predominant " feeling in the mind of a parent whose sick " child is in a club is too often fixed on the " money which can only be obtained by that " child's death, no one can doubt who has " seen the working of these societies." " The wife of a clerg-yman told me that, visit " ing a poor district where a child's death " 0 bad occurred, instead of hearing from the " neighbours the language of sympathy for the bereaved parent, she was shocked by " such grudging observations as—' Ah ! it's a "fine thing for her (the mother) the child's in " two clubs!'" We may be told that this is exaggera tion, that the pecuniary benefit derived from these societies is too wall to outweigh the strongest feelings of the human organisation. Let us, then, see what the amount of this benefit is. John Rodda, in July, '4O, was con victed at York Assizes of the wilful murder of his child, aged twelve months. It was proved that he said "he did not care how soon it died, for it was on a dead-list for 21. 10s. ; " also that he added "he had another that " would have the same when it died, and two " others that would have 51. a-piece when " they died ; " 151. gained at the trifling cost of four murders ! In July, '4B, Ma►y May was found guilty of poisoning a person of the name of Watts, whom she had put on the list for Al. or 101. In August, '47, Ann Mather put her husband on three death-lists— poisoned him—and won 201. Innumerable other instances might be adduced; but for most readers taste these will be sufficient. Be it here observed that there is no limit to the extent to which this gambling may be practised. In Mr. CMADWICICS report it is stated that a single individual in Manchester had insured his children in nineteen different clubs. It is hard to imagine that this could be done for the mere purpose of legitimate in surance. The object must have been to profit by an anticipated death ; whether such death were contemplated as occurring in the common course of nature, or otherwise. There is THE PRESS. literally nothing to prevent speculation of this kind: law allows it ; practice does not prevent it; the regulations of burial clubs not only tolerate but encourage it. But the most effectual test which we can apply is, after all, that with which the accounts of mortality furnish us. In Dr. LYON PLAT /AIR'S report OR the unitary condition of large towns in Lancashire it is stated that, among the Manchester poor, out of one hun dred deaths, from sixty to sixty-five are thou of infants under Ave years of age. Does this arise from poverty ? No; for the rate of infant mortality in Manchester, where wages are high, exceeds, in the proportion of four to one, that which prevails among the ill-paid agri cultural labourers of Dorsetshire. But is it the consequence of local insalubrity ? It does not appear that this insalubrity is excessive : ' among the wealthier class the average of life is reckoned at thirty-eight years. But another example may supply more conclusive proof. In a town of tio,ooo inhabitants alluded to, but not named, by Mr. CLAY, we have, among the wealthy class, a loss of infant life amounting to eighteen per cent ; among the workers, a loss, under similar circumstances, of fifty six per cent. ; or more than three of the latter fur one of the former. Yet farther testimony is forthcoming : The" collector " of a burial club, mutaining upwards of 5,000 menders, furnished me in 1843 with an account of the ages at death of 400 members of his society, being the number removed by death during the three years and three months immediately preceding the date of his re turn. From the statement thus given by the burial club officer it appeared that tI4 per cent. of all the deaths re ferred to children under five years old. In a return sup plied by the secretary of another club it was shown that the infant mortality was 64 per cent. !• Now, without attempting to enter into intricate calculations in order to show the grounds of my opinion, I may justly condole that there is some highly objectionable influence operating this result. The infant mortality of Preston, among the working elms generally, as shown in the report referred to in the note below, is about 06 per cent. of all the deaths in that class. How does It happen, then, that in burial clubs which by their rules exclude the entrance of infants under eight weeks old, and then require sixteen weekly payments before anything would be payable on death, the clubs' show an excess of infant death of six or eight per cent. over the rate of infant death among the entire class of the labouring population ? It appears that a certain small amount of reform has been effected since '46. Medical certificates are more regularly required, and a check is thus sought to be imposed on the neglect or cruelty of parents. But this pre caution has been unavailing. The medical attendant of a charitable institution in Lan cashire, quoted by Mr. CLAY, supplies the following statistics : Patients admitted in one year (1817) 3,052 Of these above five years of age 2,711 ' , ander five years It would thus appear that, although one•half of all the deaths in the town consists of children under bye years of age, the Rroportiosi of those who become patients of the only chantable medical institution in the place is only one• eighth of that above five years. Of the cases under five rare one in six proved fatal—of those above five years one la 191 .. The difference between a mortality of one in six and one in is too great to he accounted for on any other supposition than that of the existence of great neglect ou the part of parents. With this statement of otorious evils we close our present article. 4n another number we shall point out more lin detail both the extent of the danger and 'the nature of the cure. LOSS OF THE " TAYLEUR." IN another part of the paper the loss of this noble ship is recorded. A Catastrophe so appal ling is a national calamity. These fearful wrecks have increased, are increasing, and the question now is, can they be diminished ? So far as the Tayleur is concerned, undoubtedly she need not necessarily have been lost, if ordinary and obvious precautions had been taken; and these were all the more necessary because the course she had to pursue, for about 100 miles after leaving Liverpool, is one of the most dangerous that exists any where. Starting from the vast and increasing sandbanks at the mouths of the Mersey and the Dee, she would exchange them only to encounter the headlands of Wales. Ormes- • Report on the Sanitary Condition a of Towns Commission, vol. 1), p. 187. (Health head and the Island of Priest Dutchman's Bank between--ei with tales of death and terror —are entrance. into the Menai Strait night is dark and the ship is fore, whatever the weather, she outside the Island of Angle puts back, or has a pilot on take her into the natural hari the Little Ormeshead. The fate her course until, in a fearful that triangle of which Port d head, and the Irish coast are Still, had she been well-hank the Tayleur could have defier sea, however great their hwy. day morning she was driving fu. coast. Her situation was Ica time to enable her to beat neither sails nor helm seem applied to their proper use. and currents swept her on, shreds against the rock, al cargo of 000 human beings tie were in a few minutes corps to and fro by the raging sea. says the compasses were w"" counts state that the crew did how to work the ropes and haw and a third, about which there doubt, alleges that many of tlik and Chinese, who could not under, taia's orders. Since the repeal tion laws no statutory provisio7 ciency in the crew. The Tayl have put to sea manned with Again, before the Mercani was passed, a committee repo] can ships sailed with fewer owing to the superior intellige This was accounted for by the duced by the facilities for insurance in England. If a ship is lost tains no pecuniary loss. Wh( centive to exertion is wanting, stake, is it not the province intervene and provide safeguar& violate any rule of political it be a restriction on trade—to t an emigrant-ship sails a eertiti obtained from the harbour-mas, puty, that the crew posses technical knowledge of their present ease the vessel was haps from the variation of thk mainly through the incapacit: to obey the orders of the caps examination under the eye of nautical man would prevent tin a catastrophe so fearful, at least cause. FINANCE FOR WORK': PROVIDENT INSTIT' IF it be true, as we believe it pular movements which mk class are those which origins itself, not many institutions, done or are likely to do, more than the various denominath Societies. These societies, essentially , self-supporting, supply the onl; by which a life spent in labour from an old age of pauperism, banks are uncertain; the old ' ing up coin, still common nearly passed away among of men, and was at best unprofitaL mained in vogue ; while, in both the other, the money saved being the power of the depositor, a extravagance may destroy the years' economy. This is not cieties in question, inasmuch their payments, not at the ceiver, but at times and undl which are known and fixed befc The scale on which unde nature are carried on is but lit among persons interested which they involve. There is as regards the actual statistics stated on good authority tha , individuals taking part in —area thwm —e she - tata e l S t btbo e ol aA e m oa r a :ff en r I th ud , s hu dhp o u s s ahifv points. carryr, ,eshsoe°s_iicps; til traits, When e liut j :? 11 dy e . L Ah git o l lm e, e s , is ip lyn Llinas, deep. T , tile r l to sh eenea _ona mththaieebi d u .no d . handlel. El , 1)8 ds beso known t h il i fi e ngh in a lei idlyp t ample t e re ms e L e anl rang e a . m ol were ehghit might rtteii living slegally sails;captainalr. lion -4. and B ut on Sat 8 t 13: to have bean se tderstand the tap- of the navigt• cardsMaur lan y. rrtile m; dd e t e n ? sTl lo t h at n en sures nhahael individualdr ienne, owner understand an o l i sa l e our orte s, !nee of the former t us• en to carelessness in. nuance that exist g, in and life is N of legislation to is economy—would 3 enact that before tificate should be master, or a de- !ss a competent it duty? In the lost partly per- he compasses, but ty of the mariners ptain, An hour's f an experienced the recurrence of sat from a similar CING MEN— TUTIONS. it is, that the po• nost benefit any tate in that class in any form, have e for working men Lions of Friendly r sellgoverned and ily practical means can be guaranteed perism. Savior fashion of hoard. in Ireland, has our English wort. itable while it re both one else sad eing at all Wools a single impulse of he fruits of many t so with the so' 41 as these make option of the re under conditions beforehand• lertakings of this littl e known, eve: in the questions s some uncertainq co, but it has be at the n umber of Such associatino 1111 1