The Press. — London, England, 1858-11-06 00:00:00

THE PUBLIC HEALTH. T H E quarterly return of the Registrar-General com prises the births and deaths registered by 2,197 registrars in the districts of England during the summer quarter that ended on September 30, 1858; t h e marriages in 12,303 churches or chapels and a bout 3,997 registered p laces of worshi p unconnected with the Established Church, and 629 superinten dent registrars' offices, in the quarter that ended on J u ne 30, 1858. The depression of the country diminished in the s p r ing quarter of the year. The marriages, never theless, remained below the average number. The birth-rate was sliphtly below the average in the sum mer quarter. The mortality was less than the average of the summer season, and this is to some extent the result of sanitary improvements. MARRIAGES. 39,909 marriages were celebrated in the quarter ending June 30th, consequently 79,818 persons mar ried in the three months. This is nearly 20,000 in excess of the numbers married in the previous q uarter, but is somewhat less than the numbers in the corresponding quat ter of last year. The people married at the annual rate of 184, the average rate of the season being 171, in 10,000. The rate of marriage is lowest in winter ; and in the last winter it was 125, or 16 below the average of that season, so that the improvement of the prospects of the people in spring is evident. The agricultural counties of the south of England, the northern counties and London, were but slightly affected ; Staffordshire and Lancashire experienced the greatest degree of de pression, but that was not very considerable. 157,149 children were registered in the quarter that ended on September 30th, or 3,768 less than the births in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The birth-rate was 3,195, or slightly below the average rate of the season, 3,247. THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 6, 1858. Diphtheria, which is often called " throat disease," has prevailed in some districts of the south, and has now extended northwards. It has been fatal in the Horncastle district, Lincolnshire; prevalent in Newark ; and several children have died of the disease in Sheffield. Districts of the East Riding and of the North Riding of Yorkshire have been visited by the epidemic diphtheria. THE FRENCH PRINTING-OFFICES, according to the Patrie, amount to 1,037, which employ 9,500 com positors, 3,000 pressmen, and 900 correctors and overseers. The average annual number of works printed is 8,000. The produce of the whole is esti mated at twenty.five millions of francs. Thus the whole printing power of France is considerably below that of London. THE PRINCE OF OUDE is still at Cairo, leading a very retired life, and but seldom seen abroad. The young prince is residing at the house of an English shawl merchant, a 3lahomedan from Lahore, who for several years has been established in Egypt. FIREPROOF FLOORS.—An admirable invention, which appears to us to afford perfect security against the lamentable destruction of property and loss of life which have of late marked the occurrence of fires in both the metropolis and the provinces, has been pa tented by Mr. Cheyne, member of the Institute of Civil Engineers. Mr. Cheyne's floor consists of a combination of malleable iron joists, corrugated iron sheets, and concrete or cement, so arranged that the ceiling of each room is converted into one sheet of iron, and thus so effectually preventing all passage of fire that the destruction of property cannot possi bly extend beyond the room in which the fire origin. ates. The concrete is used mainly as a bed for slips of wood, to which the floor is nailed. In weight the entire floor is less than double that of the ordi nary dangerous one of timber now in use, while in thickness it is one-half less—a material .dvantage where height in rooms is a desideratum. The patent may be applied with equal facility to the largest warehouse or the most modest cottage ; and with regard to both, the invention acquires enhanced im portance from the custom now so prevalent among builders of ventilating floors by lateral draughts, which materially increase both the risk of fire and its intensity. A drawing has been forwarded to us, and any number, we are informed, may be obtained at Mr. Cheyne's offices, $4, Great George-street. For the information of the unprofessional reader we may explain that corrugated iron is sheeted iron, formed into a series of carves, giving to each curved portion the strength of an arch, without materially increasing the weight. THE AMERICAN HOTEL SYSTEM appears to be just being brought into organization by corporate enter prize in this country; and from the extraordinary success which has attended the first experiment so boldly and ably made at Paddington, it seems pro bable that it will ultimately be carried out to a large extent. The Opera Colonnade Hotel, for many years well known as Ftuillade's, has been purchased by a company, whose advertisement appears in another part of our impression of today, and who will have so far an advantage over the other schemes of a like nature that are in oontemplation or progress, that they are in a position at once to commence operations. INCREASE OF POPULATION. 157,449 births and 98,260 deaths were registered, consequently the natural increase of the population in the 92 days was 59,189, or 643 daily in England. The probable natural increase of population in the United Kingdom was 964 daily. 10,803, or, allowing for persons of undistinguished nationality, 12,844, English emigrants sailed from ports at which there are Government emigration agents in the last three months; 6,859 to the Australian colonies, 692 to the North American colonies, 4,877 to the United States, and 416 to all other places. The emigrants from the United Kingdom amounted to 29,354, or to fewer by 15,000 than have emigrated in any corresponding quarter since 1817. THE PRICE OF PROVISIONS. The prices of wheat fell progressively from 725. 3d. a quarter in the months of July, August, and Sep tember, 1856, to 595. Ild. in 1857, and to 445. 7d. on an average in the corresponding three months of the present year. The decrease of price was thus thirty-eight per cent. The price of beef by the car case at Leadenhall and Newgate markets fell in the two years from 51d. to 51d. a pound ; mutton from W. to 51d. a pound, or eight per cent. in price. Potatoes (York Regents) were sold at 78s. a ton at the waterside market, Southwark, or twenty-six per cent. less than the prices of the same season in the previous year. In this year 30 lbs. were sold for a shilling ;in the last year 21 lbs. only. The price of potatoes is now the same as the price was in 1856. The weather during the three months presented some peculiarities; at Greenwich the temperature of the air in July was below, in August slightly above i1..'.. deg.), in September 4.0 deg. above the average of eighty seven years. The humidity was below, the barometric pressure above, the average. The rain fall was 5.4 inches in the three months, or nearly two inches below the average. The rain-fall was not too scanty in the north ; in lat. 52-53 deg. it was 7.1 inches, in lat. 53-54 deg. it was 8.4 inches. In the Isle of Wight, Devon, and Cornwall, from 7 to 8 inches of rain fell. STATE OF TN PUBLIC REALM 98,260 deaths were registered in 92 days ; and the mortality was at the rate of 1,994 per cent. annually, or 146 below the average. The average rate of the season exceeded 21; the actual rate of the last quarter was less than 20 in 1,000. During the last summer the annual rate of mortality in the Population of the country, of villages, and of small towns, was at the rate of 17 in 1,000, the average Tate Wog 18; and in the SUDO time the town popu lation died off at the annual rate of 24 in 1,000, the average rate being 26. The deaths in the 92 days amounted to 98,260. If the mortality bad been at the standard rate deduced from 63 of the lotst un healthy districts, the deaths would have amounted W 73,08 8 .; consequently, the deaths in excess of the etymparatively healthy average, or the unnatural 118141 4 amounted to 4S ,172, or which 10,11 1 3 IlaP - P°4Bd the large towns, sod 11,026 ie the email towns 4114 Obituarl MAJOR-GENERAL SIR Wirrux REID, K.C.8., died on Sunday evening last at his residence, Gloucester. terrace, Hyde-park. The deceased general was the eldest son of the Rev. James Reid, minister of the parish of Kinglassie. Fifeshire, where Sir William was born in 1791. He was married in 1818 to the youngest daughter of John Holland, Esq., of Clapham. He was educated at Musselbnrgb, and subsequently W the military academy at Woolwich. Having entered the Royal Engineers in 1809, he served under the Duke of Wellington to the end of the Peninsular war, and was made colonel of the Engi neers in 1854, and major-general in 1856. From February, 1839, to October, 1846, he was governor of Bermuda; from October, 1846, to August, 1848, he was governor of the Windward Islands, and was appointed governor of Malta in 1851. He is the author of two valuable works on the law of storms. He was chairman of the executive committee for managing the Great Industrial Exhibition of 1851, and was made H.C.B. in acknowledgment of his services on that and previous occasions. Mits. HOPE SCOTT expired at Edinburgh on Tuesday last. She was the granddaughter of Sir Walter Scott and the daughter of Mr. John Gibson Lockhart. Like nearly all the descendants of the great Scotch novelist and poet, she has been cut off in the prime of life. She was married isfew years since to Mr. Hope Scott, the eminent barrister, who Wok the latter antnswo on bid sanding to the Abbotaiord eitatgc 1083 SECOND EDITION. SATURDAY AFTERNOON. LATEST INTELLIGENCE. FRANCE. THE FRENCH RULE IN ALGERLL The Moniteur publisihes a sweeping decree of Na poleon abolishing mortmain altogether in Algeria. THE SERVIAN INSIIIMECTION. Our Conant at Belgrade, says the correspondent of the Globe, M. Fonblanque, has found it necessary to take instructions at Vienna as to the impending revolution in Lis district, Semis, Bosnia, and Theis&ly being on the eve of convulsion. From Vienna he has just gone to Trieste to embark for Constantinople with the same object, and returns to his post by the Lower Danube. If the famous 600 deputies meet in open air, and open arms, after the ritual of the ancient Skuptchina, bayonets alone clan disperse them. PRUSSIA. THE NEW MINISTRY. The following is a correct list of the new Prussian Ministry :—Prince Hohenzollern, President of the Council ; Baron Rudolph von Auerswald, Minister without a Portfolio ; Baron Schleinita, Foreign Affairs ; Von Patow, Finance ; M. Flottwell, Interior ; Von Bonin, War; Von Betbmann•Holweg, Public Instruction. The Ministers for Commerce and Justice are not yet named. SPAIN. THE LATE CHINE SE WAR. A letter from Manilla states that the Spanish troops destined to co-operate with the French in Cochin-China sailed from that port on the 27th August for the Huo-nang group of Islands, about sixty miles from the coast of Tonkin,which bad been fixed on as the rendezvous. The Spanish forces consisted chiefly of Tagal troops, with two battalions of riflemen, a detachment of cavalry, and one of artillery of the royal army. Twenty-one transports were employed to convey the troops, and others were to follow with ammunition, provisions, tents, clothing, &c. On the evening preceding their departure a solemn mass was celebrated in the open air in pre sence of the troops, and was attended by the Captain- General and otheriauthorities. A CONFERENCE OF MEMBERS OF PARILLAIEENT, interested in Reform, was held at the Guildhall Coffee-house, Gresham-street, City, yesterday. Mr. Bright, M.P., Mr. White, M.P., Mr. J. Clay, M.P., Mr. Roebuck, M.P., Mr. W. Williams, M.P., Mr. Ronpell, M.P., Mr. Coningham, M.P., Mr. D. Nicoll, M.P., Mr. E. Miall, Mr. Muntz, of Birmingham, and a number of representatives from various parts of the provinces, were present. A resolution was unani mously adopted, requesting Mr. Bright to frame and introduce a Reform Bill in the ensuing session of Parliament. Mr. Bright accepted the task, and, in doing so, addressed the meeting at some length. AT THE MEETING OF THE METROPOLITAN BOARD OF WORKS yesterday it was resolved to call in chemical assistance as to the several schemes for deodorizing and applying the sewage. The com mittee on the Newgate-street improvements reported against the board undertaking the same, but the matter was referred back to them. The finance com mittee report as to the assessment for the main-drain. age rate was adopted, and the precepts for its payment ordered to be issued, and made returnable at Mid summer next. The purchase of the lease of Berke ley House was then confirmed, and the specification for the northern high level sewer approved. THE PROCEEDOOB AT ST. MARTIN'S CICHETEHT, consequent on the clearance of the ground for build. ing purposes, and which have given rise to much un pleasant feeling, came under the investigation of Mr. Tyrwhitt, at Clerkenwell pohce•conrt yesterday. George Lawrence answered the summons issued on a charge of desecration. It was stated in defence that the excitement snd spirit of opposition bad been got up quite groundlessly, as a faculty was granted by the bishop for the removals, and the work was being done with every attention to decency and regard for public feeling. An agreement was ultimately come to that the work should be suspended for a week, that the real merits of the case might be as. eertained. Several cases of assault, and shameful treatment of the police in the execution of their duty during the disturbanees at the scene of operation, were brought before the magistrate, who expressed his determination rigorously to enforce the penalties due to a breach of the peace. One man was fined twenty abilangs, and another sent to prison for twentyone days, without thi. i,l4ion of a fin; $ boy, also, was aenxenced W tourism; dap' isPRIIIOII.4*Sy