The Express.
London, England, 1848-02-11 00:00:00

ENTAILED ESTATES.

In reply to Mr7ii.COcis
The LCIRD-ADVOCAIE said he hoped at en early
period to be able to bring in a bill fur the purpose of afford.
tog relief to the owners of entailed estates in Scotland.
LAND IMPROVEMENT ACT AND AGRICUL-
TURALSTATISTICS (IRELAND).

In reply to Mr. MAW‘SPLL,
Sir W. SOMERVILLE said that he would be able to
produce in a shirt time a return of the sums which Lad been
applied for and the sums which had been lent under the
Land Improvement Act. He was not able to say when the
agricultural stati.tics relating to Ireland would be ready.
THE CANTON OF VAUD.
Sir H. VERNEY wished t. know from the noble lord
the Secretary of State for Foreign Aff firs, whether the de-
cree of the cantonal government of Vaud, dated the 24th
dey of November, 1847, would affect British subjects in
that canton, and whether the remonstrance and advice
tendered by Sir S. Canning to the government of Switzer-
land, for the purpose of dissuading the cantonal govern-
ments from arbitrary and tyrannical measure, against
those who differed front them in politics and religion, had
been attended with success ?
Lord PALMERSTON said he was not aware that British
subjects would be affected by the decree alluded to.
And even if British subjects had been affected, he did not
know that this would give the government a right to inter-
fere in the way. cootemplatel. Our charge d'atfaires, how-
ever, had received instructions to make what remonstrances

shouid appear nuessary.
IMPRISONMENT OF PERSONS BEFORE TRIAL.
Lord NUGENT then rose to move, pursuant to notice, for
leave to bring in a bill to repeal so much of the act 2 & 3
Vict. as gives the power of applying the system of separate
imprisonment to persons before trial. There was much con.
fusion in the house, and the noble lord was very indistinctly
beard. He contended that the practice he sought to effect
the discontinuance of was wholly opposed to every principle
of constitutional law and of natural justice.
Sir G. GREY gave full credit to his noble friend for his
motives in bringing forward the motion, but he could not
assent to the introduction of the bill, repealing, as it pro-
posed to do, ,me of the most valuable provisions of our cri•
minal code. The system was not a penal system upon un.
tried prisoners, but, on the contrary, a regulation most bene-
ficial to them.
Dr. BOWRING recommended his noble friend not to
press the question.
Lord IdAHON should be glad to ascertsin what was in-
tended to be done respec:ing penal punishments generally.
The question had last year been kit in a most unsatisfact-
tory condition.
Sir G. GREY paid he should introduce a measure on the
subject of punishments this year, but the whole question
was surrounded by greet difficulties and embarrassments.
The plan indicated by Lord Grey last par would certainly
undergo considerable moditications.
Lord NUGENT replied, and the motion was by leave
withdrawn.
lIIGHWAYS.

Mr. OSBORNE asked if say measare was to be brought
in on the subject of highways ?
Sir G. GREY said snob a measure was in preparation.
PUBLIC HEALTH.

Viscount MORPETII then rose to move for leave to
bring in a bill for promoting the public health. His lord-
ship said that in rising to move this bill for the second time,
he certainly felt ro diminution of the anxiety and earnest-
ness which attended his first effort, and he hoped he might
say his last failure on the subject. He did not feel himself
called on to enter into the subject of the proceedings which
ended in that defeat. What then passed, however, had
left two feelings uppermost in bin mind; one, of his increased
responsibility, that there should be no second failure ; the
other, that whilst last time a great deal was *aid and nothing
done, so this time comparatively little might be Raid, and a
great deal might belt-fleeted. It might be remembered that
in the proceeding's last year two iojuoc•iona were given to
him—one to set forth in the bill all that it was proposed to
enact; the other, to bring in • bill containing only two er
three clauses. These injunction* were opposed to each
other, and having to choose between them, he had decided
to comply with the first. Aiming at as much conciseness and
brevity as were attainable with the efficiency of the measure—
disauding many adjuncts which they would have been glad to
have included—they had *ought in the first bill to lay the basis
of an efficient measure of sanitary reform. Perhaps he could
not better state the objects which such a measure should aim
at than by quoting from the pe'ition of the working cluses,
presented last session, in favour of the Health of Towns
Bill. These were the classes, be it remembered, for whom
they had to legislate. If health eluded the rich man in one
place, he might pursue it in another ; but if the parliament
did not provide health for the poor, they were quite unable
to provide it for themselves. The petitioners he referred to
prayed for seven things: for better water—better sewers—
the removal of nuisances—the improvements of the dwellings
of the poor—their better ventilation—the erection of public
baths and wash-houses—and the construction of gymnasia
and public places of amusement. lie would now proceed to
state what the bill itself proposed. They abided by their
proposition to form a general board of health, consisting of
five members, of whom two should be paid, and of whom the
president should be personally responsible to parliament.
He was aware that this proposition would not meet the views
of those who were specially impressed with the inconvenience
of what they styled centralisation; but he was fully
convineod himself that without some regulating central
power, the set could never practically be carried out. And
he had reason to think, that public opinion coincided with
this view, and that therdseras • general conviction that when
duties were thrown on irresponsible local bodies, they would
trimly be found to fulfil those duties satisfactorily. There-
fore, whilst he should leave the working to local bodies re-
presenting those who were mainly interested, be considered
it right that there should be a general board to provide indis-
pensable preliminaries, to suggest plans, to check abuses,
and to exercise a superintending control. This brought him
to state what the constitution of the loud board should be,
and on that point they also adhered to the opinions expressed
last year, that those local bodies should be more or le-s con-
nected with the town councils of the different boroughs. Two

objections were raised to that—fint, that the machinery was
onethrous ; end second, that the boundaries of boroughs
were not well defined. They proposed to meet the first ob-
jection by providing that after a certain number of house-
holders had applied for the operation of the act, and after
the report of competent inspectors, then the order
in council issued by the executive board shou define
the number of which the local board should he composed,
and that the town council should choose that number from
among their own body. With respect t the question of
boundary, they proposed that the same order in council
should prescribe the number of sanitary officers to act for
the outlying districts, to be chosen from among the guar-
dians of the poor. Towns and places where no town Gout-
cil existed would be subject to a similar arrangement. With
regard to the limits of their operatinmi, they proposed is
make no exception in England and Wake with respect to
the operation of the act; and hereafter, if the bill was found
to act well, they would hope cod extend it to Scotland and
Ireland. He had said they id not exclude any part el
England and Wales, and therefore the house would under.
stand that the bill did not professedly exempt the metropse
I lig. (Hear, hear.) He did not wish to mislead the house.
I They had appointed • commiesion specially to report upon
the measures required bye e metropolis upon this subjed,
and he should hope bring in •a bill specially
applicable to it, for owing to the great extent
of London. its large population and the number of interests
involved, he must candidly say that he did not contemplate
that it would be easy, until the supplementary bill was
ready, to apply the provisions of this measure to the metro-1
polis. He now came to the question of the duties the beg
, commissioners would have to perform. There would elf
I course be some localities in which certain measures would be
mare expedient than others; but the duties which the kali
boards would have to conduct would be these: They would
be bound to have regular meetings, to appoint an tweeter
of nuisances, to prepare a map of their localities, to reclaim
house-drains to be made, to cleanse and water the public streets,
ti fill up or cover in ditches, to keep a register of slaughter-
houses and lodging-houses, and to provide sufficient water
for general use. They . would have permissive powers to
cover sewers, alter privies, &c.,whitewath and purifyhoutes,
I provide buildings to be used so slaughser-houses, alter public
buildings improperly built, supervise their ventilation, pro-
vide public walks, and purchase and maintain waterworks.
Them objections, of course, must be carried into effect by
means of rating. The rating clauses would be of the simplest
construction, and would admit of the rates being levied on
the districts specially to be benefited. He did cot like to
commit himself to the question of cost, hut it bad been esti-
mated that all the necessary sanitary provisions could be de-
frayed at a rate of not more than 4d. a week per house. He
did not mean to include any clauses respecting cemeteries in
the bill, but it would enact that whenever the Board
of Health found a churchyard over-crowded they
might have power to prohibit its use. (Hear, bear.)
With regard to the subject of ventilation, that had been put
under the superintendence of a special board, and cones-
quently would not be comprised within the limits of the
proposed bill. Such were the main outlines of the measure
which lie proposed to lay before the house ; but he could not
conclude without endeavouring to impress on the house
some of the grounds which, in his opinion, rendered it ab-
solutely imperative that the present or some other equivalent
measure should be adopted without delay. Amongst those
grounds he did not mean to lay much stress on the cholera.
If that dreaded malady should arrive the government had
already adopted all the precautions that could be devised. It
might prove only • temporary visitation, and as such be
met by temporary remedies, and in s o far the governmeuthad
already done something by reviving the Cholera Act
of 1832, which would admit of the speedy re-establishment
of local boards of health, if they should be required. But
what he more immediately sought to impress on the house
was the fact, that they were not now called upon to provide
temporary remedies against temporary evils, hut against
abiding evils of a vast extent, evils which were the perms-
cent causes of by far the larger proportion of noisome ills
that infested the populations of towns and cities, and which
exceeded in their fatal ravages the bloodiest slaughter ever
witnessed in the battle held. (Hear.) Ile was not about
to trouble the house with any unnecessary quotations from
those statistical proofs which right-minded men hail deemed
it expedient to bring forward in defence and illustration of
sanitary reform. There might have been inure in some of
those estimates formed by enthusiastic inquirers, and in the
deductions which they made from them, but even making •
liberal allowance for those exaggerations, there remained
sufficient to appal, as well so to rouse, the house to exertion.
One writer in a medical review thus states his views
The conclusions to which our examination of sanitary testa and
estimates has led us are the following 1. That the advocate. of
sanitary reform are justified in ...inning 2 per cent. RA the rate to
which the mortality of all towns, atal o foorti"rt of the country at
large, may, by proper sanitary measure-, be reduced. 2. That there
are fair grounds for assuming for the whole of the population a still
more favourable rate of mortality. 3. That the estimated annual
sacritice of 35,000 lives in England and Wale., and of upwards of
60,000 in the United Kingdom, la not greatly exaggerated; and that
a more moderate estimate of 30,(00 for Englund and Widen, and
51,000 for the United I:lowdown, way be very rarely wooled. 4.
That the eatimated amount of eickuena, like the estiinated waste of
life, expressed in years, has been s thearhat exaggerated by the :Wyo.
este. of sanitary reform; that 20 awes of unnecessary eicknese to I
unneareaary death, is a safer proportion to assume than 25 to I • and
that the total CARS of uunevaosary sickness will have to be reduced
accordingly.
The reviewer then goes on to say :
The annual mate of life and 'author of health reduced to equiva.
lent, in pounds, chilling., and pence, under the heads of Sane.,
funeral. and labour twit, a represented by a grand total for England
and Wale. of 14,a13,911/., or little lira. than 15,000,000 f. Merlin,. Of
this enormous total the metropolis contributes very nearly 2,00,0001,
and Lancashire upwards of 4,coo,tacil. The sander& of comparison
employed in these calculation. are the rate of mortality and average
age at death in the moat healthy registration di-trict of each county ;
the ages of the living being dieregunled, and the rate. of aicknew to
death being taken at I to Is. If itas ~Mal 'lament at see had
been taken into account, if the more moderate standard of two per
cent. had been auhatituted for the pertain,. too favourable mortality et
the moat healthy district, and If the ratio of I to 28 between deatbe
and came of sickness had been made to raider some abatement, it Is
ant impossible that these 15,0181,00 r might be redored to consider- I
ably leas than half. Possibly the total waste of money might not ex.
teed the sum annually raised in the shape of poor rates.
Discarding the higher figures of these computations, and
taking them even at one-ha:f, lie would still he justified in
asserting it as a truth, that there were annually 30,000 lives
sacrificed which might be saved, and from 7,000,0001. to
8,000,0001. of unnecessary outlay, which, if not avoided in
future, would be attributable less to the folly of the legisla-
ture than to its criminality. In a subsequent part of the
tame review, the writ. r thus proceeds :
The calculations published in the tables of the Health of Towns
Amociation embrace only three head.-funerals, sickness. and la-
bour wasted. Orphanage and widowhood, which Impose a perpetual
burden on the poor laws of about 51)1)00 women and children, and
an annual burden, which, though not yet eacertioneil, cannot but he
considerable, are not taken into the account. then there is another
enormouti item of waste OR misappropriation of motley, not contained
in these tables—namely, the mime squandered in the thane of defec-
tive and coldly structural arrangementa above and below ground.
What all these barbarisms hare cost and arc coating an, it would be •
difficult to say; but that they amount to several million. gyear no res.
sanatile man not doubt. We refer our reader. to the repatta of the
Health of Towns COMMLIAOR. and t e pulaication of the Health of '
Towns Association, for particulars. If they appear exaggerated, let
them halve or quarter every item, and there will still remain the
met remarkable expose ever t mauled municipal and national ex-
traeaganee. One brood principle may be safely enunciated In respect
of ramtary economies—that it come niore money to create disease than
to pravent it; and that there is not a single structural arrangement
chat iteable with the production of disease which is not also In Malt

an extravagance.
The return of the Itegistrar-General of the kingdom, for the 1,
quarter ending Dec. 31 last, had just been presented, and in
it he found the following statement
The quarterly returns are obtained from 117 district", subdivided
into 582 eub-rhstricto. 36 distract,' are in the metropolis, and the re- 4
maining SI comprise, with some agricultural district", the principal
towns and cities of England. The populatlor. was 6.612,800 In 1841. ,
57,925 deaths were registered in the last quarter. The average num-
ber
of deaths deduced from the resume of the corresponding quarter
of nine preceding years, and corrected for increase of population, is
46,800. There is, consequently, an Cicero of 11,376 deaths m the
quarter. The deaths registered in the December quarters of 1845,
1846, and 1847, are 39,291-14,093-37,925; the mortality In the fleet
ie to that of the last quarter nearle as 2to 3. A Might increase In
the mortality was noted in the returns of the June quarter, 1846; the
mortality in the following hot summer, when the potato-crop
failed, was excessive. Cholera and diarrhcca prevailed epi-
demically. In the autumn of 11146 at well as the winter
and Raring quarters of 1447 the mortality was still higher.
Scurvy mewled in the beginning of the year, but in the
summer the public health appeared to be ',lightly nuproved. Epidet
mica of typhus and influenza, however, set in, and have made the
mortality in the last quarter of 1817, higher than in any quarter of
any year since the new system of registration commenced. About
16,000 a year, multiplied by 10, the recoveries to rage death, a
calculation lower by 18 than Dr. Playfair, we have yearly is England
above 166,000 Wad" of this loalluoine disease which may be pre.
vented—a disease which does more to pauperise our population, to fill
our workhouses with widows and orphans, than any other, and for
this reason—the typhus fever for the meet pert attacks men and wo-
men in the prime of life—from 20 in 40. Thls le the age at which the
member. of the working claws marry; and U the tether of a family
it cut etr, the widow and her children are rest for support on the
poor retea. fir 01 a painful cause of pauperiem, and it becomes
more eo from Its permanence. A widow re left with children is wi-
den married a wand time. From the broke of the union,' it appears
to take piece only in one case out of JO. leo wonder, then, the poor.
low unions have to support 40,000 widows and 100,010 orphans
year after year.
The evidence afforded by the medical statistics, that typhus
was a result of causes that could with certainty be prevented,
wan overwhelming and conclusive. Dr. Hall. of Preston,
speaking of the sanitary condition of the town. skid
The deaths of infants in Prestos, ended by Dr. Doll, under one
year, were--well-conditioned streets, IS deaths to 100 births ; mid-
' dling-cooditioned erects, 21 deaths to 100 births ; ill-conditioned
struts, 38 deaths to 100 Meths ; woresenditioned streets, 41 deaths
to 100 births. We see, then, and the remark holds good not only in
Preston, but also in other tOllllll, that the mortality is in proportion to
' the condition of the houses in which the children live and the streets
in which they are situate, no lees than 28 per cent. more of deaths
taking plow in the worst than in the beat °auditioned streets of Pres-
ton. the mortality being 15 and 41 per cent.
t The condition, of Leicester and of Nottingham was
exemplified in the following manner:
P In the pariah of tit. Margaret, Leiceeter, the average age at death
• in 1840 was—well-drained streets, 24; partially drained streets, 173 ;
I streets without
aoonvonne.

MORTAL/Tr or !WIT
Ward. Death to each ln3.
Byrne@ Ward
Worst 1 at. Ann's Ward '^ d2 36
St. Mary's Ward ln 30
castle Ward in 43
Beet ItSberwood Ward
Park Ward in S
What he (Lord Morpeth) wanted to show was, that death
daily occurred from causes that the legislature could remove.
Very recently he had seen a statement in one of the papers,
which he would read to the house.
wtiVklnvesigatfon recently took place before Mr. Baker, at the ,
Mweemarphme, on view of the body of Mary White, aged
rid=pin. ...Wr y a instituted by the medical officer of the
lode% In masersance of the many deaths which have
Mien ghee Ism admire win. Ana Briant, a married woman,
said des hod need In Sagewastart about a wee; dui ing that period '
threw was essewso_ a ham he which some one was not ill of fever.
noshed. km aii, ha bar labouring under ato for two
ineothil. Mane kr theirt wait misted the mother to attend the
WM. lit doles Taselay. Wiesen had no doubt that its death war
cansal by lb Imam sesompleseeti the court. Several of the jury ob-
wlit tiet the thaw Meriml to be in a state of fever, and Mr.
Webb, IS ranlgneering elm, etc that the whole of the inhabitants
ol the court lad dr ems mawaracce. Mr. John Liddle, surgeon of
whit/chapel tale, mkt thit he was first called to see the deceased on
the 20th August. in ereepliasee with an order. It was then suffering
rum fever and diarrhea. The parent would not let him go into