The Express.
London, England, 1866-02-21 00:00:00

ways aoesiertgoabilil
about 111100
NP Ift lb Pao
° a 4.21008
frie

London last year. There was

one time that cholera was

unwelcome visits ; but hai
whether to return this yeat er
We have been forewarned ; and

hte not

armed, so surely as effect follows cause, the
punishment will fall on those who neglect the ne-
cessary precautions against attack. The diseases
of the zymotic clan were fewer than in the pre-
vious year; scarlatina and typhus also declined,
but the deaths from the latter cause (3,232) prove
that there is much yet to be done by the health
officers in their respective districts. The violent
deaths are increasing annually, under each of the
three categories of accident or negligence, homi-
cide, and suicide ; the number of persons killed by
carriage accidents in the streets of London during'
the year was 232, but as the majority of these
deaths are registered in the various hospitals, no
clue is given to those localities where the greatest
number of accidents occur; nor have we any means
of knowing what proportion of these accidents ter-
minates fatally.
Upon the whole, then, we conclude that the
general features of the official Report are of a mach
more favourable character than those of the pre-
vious year, but with that exception we must go
back to 1854 for a mortality rate as high as that
of last year, which was in its meteorological ele-
ments so exceptional as to account probably for the
increased number of deaths. London, with all her
elaborate sanitary organization, has yet much work
that needs doing, and it is questionable if we shell
ever reap the fall benefit intended to be conferred
by Lord LLarrovita's Act until our medical officers
of health are emancipated from the control of the
ignorant optimists who unfortunately constitute
the majority in our parochial vestries.

OUR CONTEMPORLRICEL
(THIE9 DAY.)

ICI MAY'S COI BILL.

While giving lie opinion that the objections
against rte educakional f chise bill proposal I tit eight by
Mr. Clay preponderate over is marital, the Times expremes
regret that none of tie advance l Mows* who have been
ogling out for the mei. mobilemmt of the working man,
had • word to say on the en'ajeak Swe'y they might
have given no some isk'in; of their opinions on
its principle if they gawde 1 sesaiust approving the
details. The Timer is not di+p mei to deny that the prin..
eiple may be applied to the ems of lodgers, though it
thmas that even theca, ethic sal better wades of anima-
ohisiag that eats might be fount As to the work-
ing claws. although Mr. City hats as that the mamba-
time would only eat the working man half-a-craven, the
Times doubts whether the sr, Wm deal at a body would be
willing or able to pass a stack examiestion. If, on the
other Land. the mass of th people rased to qualify for
vats, It would require rather en extensive dipeetleOttt of
the Civil iteletel Oonamimion to examine the "five millions
of uneepremented males" whom wrongs have been a often
urged upon us.

As a eeetribu ion to the examlostion of the subjert at
refarro, Mr. ear's bill, the Daily News says, deserved the
Fullest bearing it remised, bat it is impms,ble to tegard
the meausrs, so antevonahle in its intro lumina sod infeli-
citous in its we'eome. as • swims attempt to settle the
goatee. It can hardly have satisfied Mr. Clay's honour-
able ansbit.oct torreonoter no other or wore* reoeptios for
his preemie:as legislation thin theist last evening. As an
amendment a • supplement to a substantive measure in-
troduced be the government, as a mole of supplying a
motive test of fitness for the Malaise, it night be worthy
of the meat card al consideration. and probably deans
support, for it is beset upon • principle which the most
thoughtful and the most &mese r .fo men have sampled ;
butitwouldimelainsiag too mob fora ptvels a toestio Dal frau-
ohiss t con Mod, as Mr. Gregory did, that it would pre-
serve the suffrage • plum the admieien of guilt. and exclude
thd Redpaths or the Etebeoas or the IC mpells from the
polling-booth. Ev.n our present property qualification,
which some liberal-conservatives are afraid to dis-
turb, as if our British constitution bad been crested thirty-
five instead of six hundred pars ago, her not excluded
them, we do not say from the polling-booth, but from the
House of Commons.

If the House of Commons were simply a debating soeiety,
no quastioe, the Telegraph thinks, could well be more
fitted for dismission than that to which Mr. Clay's motion
gave rise last night. Whether intelligence or property
ought to lie the basis for the posstesion of its franchise, is
en admirable thesis for controve-sy ; bat its practical im-
postmsce is of ao great magnet. Tots seems the falai
objeetion to the scheme of which the member for Hull is
the parliamentary parent. Aequitti ig Yr. Clay of any wish
to throw didloulties in the path of reform, the Telegraph
wool extend the same charity to toe strange allies
who supportsd his r•j-et with auspicious alacrity.
Ins very few brief materear, however, the Chanoeltor of
the Exchequer derairshed tto whole fabrie of misrepre-
eezfatien which Mr. Mamma and his fallow-worker bad
built And the cheers which welciated the stmouncemeat
that within a few days Mr. falwistolo would be able to
lay before the house the statistic% Malted to form a full
opinion on the subject of the franchise, were prOg positive
that the greet majority of the ministerial supporters do
not regard the ides of reform with that dread and anti-
pstby which Messrs. Lowe sad Hammen profess, and which
they would fain persuade themselves is entertained by
others of greater note and higher influsece.
The Star describes Mr. Clay'. proposal es impracticable,
sad adds that it is not likely to be placed in a better posi-
tion then before by the useless and even ribald speoebes
by which it was supported yesteriay. There is probably
no debating society in London which would not have
treated the subject in a higher moral tone sad even with
greater ability ban most of the s, solar of last
night displayed. The requirement of en educe-
tional teat is en abeilute impertinence, if the
working slums are worthy cf the frsnchise ; sad if they
are not, roadie', rutin', sod four rules of arithmetic will Dot
avert the consequences of their unfitness. Measures of this
kind, therefore, can a: bat only confuse the issues now
before peril-meet and the country.