The Press.
London, England, 1857-04-11 00:00:00

Lllttropolitan.

DR. LETHEBY, in his quarterly report upon the
sanitary state of the City, states that the mortality
has been above the:average—viz., at 26.2 per 1,000, in-
stead of 25-9. The prevailing cause of death had been
disease of the respiratory organs. Each union had
contributed towards the excess, but the St. Botolph
division of the City of London Union is the largest
proportion. The report then passed to the consider-
ation of causes which lad to the great mortality In
the union, dwelling particularly upon the over-
crowded state of houses inhabited by the poor, and
pointing especially to three or four cases, in which
Dr. Letheby had found 48 men, 73 women, and 59
children living in 31 small rooms; and to Rose-
alley, Bishopsgate, a row of 12 houses, each con-
taining six or seven rooms, in a ditty and ruinous
condition, and inhabited by the very poorest Irish.
Here Dr. Letheby found in all 77 rooms, 70 of which
were tenanted by 03 families of 252 persons. In
one room 2 men, 3 women, and 5 children ; in an-
other, 1 man, 4 women, and 2 children; in a third, 1
man, 2 women, and 2 children, with the dead body
of a poor girl (who had died a few days before in
childbirth), lying on the bare boards, without shroud
or coffin. This court was the continual haunt of
contagious diseases; and he had examined closely
to see if there was not some agent there peculiarly
favourable to decomposition and the generation of
disease, and by chemical analysis he discovered that,
while the atmosphere was greatly deficient in oxygen,
it contained three times the proper quantity of car-
bonic acid, besides a considerable amount of aqueous
vapour, charged with alkaline matter, smelling most
abominably. In conclusion, the report insisted upon
the necessity of taking steps to amend so dangerous
a state of things. The report was ordered to be
printed.
THE NORTH WEST LONDON PREVENTIVE AND RE-
FORMATORY INSTITUTION appears to be working well.
Ile institution was established in 1852, and com-
menced with only six inmates. At present there are 82
persons in the institution, of whom 17 are about to
emigrate, and one is training as an industrial assis-
tant for a reformatory. The results which have at-
tended the working of this institution are shown by
the fact that of 06 persons who have left it since its
opening 10 have emigrated, 32 have been established
in trade, 20 have enlisted in theiarmy or navy, 9 have
been received by their friends, 15 have quitted the
institution prematurely from dislike of iLs discipline,
2 have been dismissed for misconduct, 5 are iu ser-
vice, 1 is labourmaster at another reformatory, and 2
are deal. A meeting was held on Tuesday at the
building in the New-road, when the Bishop of Lon-
don addressed ten young inmates about to emigrate.

THE PRESS.

CIVIL WAR HAS BEEN RAGING IN RATCLIFFE. The
vestry last Monday held a meeting to nominate
and elect overseers for the next year. The
Board of Guardians appear to have anticipated
some interruption, for they organised a body of
officials and police in ile and outside the doors
of the vestry-room. But the ratepayers of Rat.
cliffs are not easily intimidated. Firm in their legal
right to have a voice in the management of their own
parochial affairs, they despatched a deputation de-
manding admission. It was peremptorily refused.
In a moment their resolution was taken; they rushed
up stairs, knocked over the beadle, scattered the
police, but failed to complete their coup-d'atat, for
the sitting members proved immovable. A hot dis-
cussion as to the rights of ratepayers ensued be-
tween the board and the ratepayers, no arrangement
was arrived at, and the question raised is to he
further agitated at the meeting of the Parochial
Reform Association next Monday.

THE ELECTION FOR THE CLERKENWELL INCUMBENCY,
terminating in the return of the Rev. Mr. Maguire,
is protested agoinst by one of the churchwardens as
illegal. The Bishop of London has undertaken to
obtain high legal opinion whether he should be justi.
fled under the circumstances in granting Mr. Maguire
a licence.
THE FIRST BODY OF ARTISAN EMIGRANTS to
Australia, under the auspices of the Wellington
Emigration Fund, will leave London on the 16th
inst. They have been carefully selected from un-
employed artisans who joined in the movement
resulting from the late meetings at Smithfield. The
selections already made most judiciously include
several men with families.—Zealand Gazette.

A WALL of a dilapidated house in Little Russell-
court, Covent-garden, yesterday fell in, killing one
man, and so severely injuring two others that they
are not expected to survive.
A REPORT ON THE STATE OF THE RIVER THAMES
from Putney to Rotherhithe, made to the First Com-
missioner of Works by Commander Burstal, R.N.,
dated the 27th oe January last, has been published
this week. The first change to which it refers is the
great alteration in the low-water surface of the river
above London-bridge; this is attributed to the
removal of the old structure in 1832, which in a great
measure acted as a dam to the river, and obstructed
the free action of the stream. The present low.
water surface at springs compared with that of 1823
is higher at all the bridges, attaining at some to a
difference of three and a half feet and four feet. In
1856, the time of high water at Battersea-bridge was
twenty-eight minutes later than at London Docks,
and the surface at nearly the same level ; whilst in
1823 the time was thirty-eight minutes later and the
surface five inches lower. The bad of the river has
considerably deepened since 1823, the great change
being at Westminster and Blackfriars bridges, a
strong disposition to the same being also manifested
ht. Southwark. The report states :

The bed of the river in 1823 at Westminster-bridgc. and
one-eighth mile below it, was 18 feet 6 inches below Trinity
datum. Hail London•bridge been then removed, the
river would have been nearly dry there at low water, with a
fall of 11 feet in the intermediate space of two miles ; and,
considering the great depth of water there was between
Lambeth Palace and the Penitentiary, viz., 29 feet below
datum, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the scour
would be very great as soon as vent was given to the river
stream by the removal of Old London•brid•„e and the shoal
below it, au also by the combined action of river steamers
and dredging.

In conclusion, Captain Burstal remarks, that should
the proposed embankment be carried out, and the
channel contracted, the strength of the stream would
be increased and the bad of the river deepened.

THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL'S RETrRNS this week
show a rate of mortality 76 below the proper average.
1,235 deaths, and 1,838 births, were registered.

probinttal.

SCREW STEAMERS for the Russian service in tho
Black Sea have lately been ordered in considerable
numbers at the Tyne ports. A fleet of vessels,
ranging from 200 to 1,000 tons, are now being built.

GREENWICH FAIR will not be held as usual next
week. The district magistrates have decided upon
its suppression, and the landowner has consented to
abide by the decision.
ANOTHER HORRIBLE FACTORY ACCIDENT occurred
last week at Messrs. Brown's worsted factory, Brad-
ford. The deceased, one Spoffortli, overseer, in
attempting while the shaft was in motion to slip a
belt upon a drum, became entangled in the belt,
was drawn up round the shaft, and, before the
engine could be stopped, so frightfully mutilated
that death had ensued before he was rescued. At
the coroner's inquest one of the jury suggested the
application in all factories of certain means lately
perfected by which machinery can without injury be
arrested in a moment.

THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE COCREIrRIi has accepted
an invitation from the Southampton Chamber of
Commerce to a public banquet. The day is not yet
fixed.

357

THE BIsHOP OF GLOUCESTER has been alarmingly
ill. His loriship, it is reported, is now considered
out of danger.
THE LUNDHILL COLLIERY PIT, it is anticipated,
will not be emptied of the water fir another fortnight.
The pumping operations are continued night and
day. The general temperature of the water, between
(II deg. and 03 deg., is considered a satisfactory
proof of the extinction of all fire in the pit. The
coroner's inquest was resumed on Thunday.
A WATERLOGGED SHIP, the Holinger, from Nerve
to Gainsborough, laden with deals, was discovered off
the coast of Norway, on the 14th ult. On boarding
her, six emaciated bodies of dead seamen were found.
The vessel was without provision of any sort ; and it
is believed that the crew, unable to make the land,
or ignorant of their position, absolutely died of starve•
Lion.

A TERRIBLE MURDER was committed in Liverpool
last Monday. A butcher, one Gibbons, in a fit of
despondency at his failure in business, attempted to
murder his whole family. He cut the throats of his
two youngest bop, and similarly attempted the life
of his wife and daughter. The two boys are dead,
and neither the wife nor the daughter expected to
live. At the coroner's inquest a verdict was returned
of " Wilful murder." The man is believed to be
insane.

THE CORPORATION AT COLCHESTER have been pre-
sented by Lord Panmure with two Russian gun-i, to
be exhibited in such a manner as may be thought
proper. Lord Panmure requests that these guns
may be suitably and correctly mounted and carefully
preserved. They will soon be sent down from Wool-
wich; and the mayor is about to take the opinion as
tolthe best and (most suitable position in which to
place the trophies.
MR. WILFRED LAwsox, the late Liberal candidate
for West Cumberland, while hunting on Saturday
was thrown from his horse and severely injured.
At first it was reported that he hal sustained
concussion of the brain, but this is not the case ;
though his injuries were of so severe a nature as to
prevent him from attending at Cockermouth on
Tuesday to hear the official declaration of the poll.

SOME REMAINS OF A ROMAN VILLA have been dis-
covered near the Roman camp on Wolstanhury-hill,
Hurstpierpnint. They consist of a regularly-built
Roman wall, indicating the building of which it
would seem to form a portion to have been about
sixty feet either way, and many fragments of arti-
cles, such as Samian ware, flue tiles of a hot vapour-
bath, amphorm, glass, and nails, have also been
discovered.

THE BIRMINGHAM JEVENIT.F. REFORMATORY INSTI-
TUTION held their annual meeting at the Town.hall,
Birmingham, on Wednesday. The Earl of Shaftes-
bury presided, and in an eloquent address insisted
upon the importance of industrial training as a great
element in effecting the reform of a criminal. There
was another matter of ♦ital importance for the
success of these institutions. The responsibility of
parents must be established. In nine cases out of
ten the parents originated habits of crime in the
children :

Parents said they could not afford to par a weekly sum
for their criminal children when they could well afford to
do so and when they professed they could not pay, they
should be told, " If you cannot be responsible with your
purse, you shall be responsible with your person, and to
prison you shall go." Whit a stringent law like that
carried out in some thirty or forty cases, depend upon it
the very parents who now sent their children to beg and
steal would be found anxious to obtain admittance for their
little ones into ragged or national schools.

Mr. Newdegate, M.P., supported the principle in a
brief speech, and a resolution adopting the report,
which showed a small available surplus, was at
once adopted.

THE RAILWAY ACCIDENTS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
of 1850 are reported as amounting to 281 persona
killed and 394 injured. Of this number 112 were
killed and 16 injured who were neither passengers
nor servants of the railway companies, 112 killed
and 80 injured who were servants of companies or
employes of contractors, and 27 killed and 208 in.
jured who were passengers. Of the passengers 8
were killed and 282 injured from causes beyond their
control, and 19 killed and 10 injured from
incautiousness. Of the 71 accidents reported on in
1850 it appears that in 7 cases only wcre the accidents
attributable to circumstances which could not be
guarded against, and that in only 3 of the cases were
the accidents solely attributable to such circumstances.
In 27 cases the negligence of the inferior servants
entered into the cause of the accident. Ihe remaining
causes of accident are classed under the following
heads—viz., defects in the construction of works or
rolling stock—insufficiency of accommodation or
appliances for safety—insufficient staff, and inade-
quacy of the system of working. A general review
of accidents reported since 1840 shows that the
great majority of accill,nts are attributable to causes
over which the managers of railways have control,
but which, from negligence or false economy, they
do not remedy. What is called "negligence" of
servants in cases of accidant is often an habitual in-