The Express.
London, England, 1866-02-06 00:00:00

PO Mt =MR OP THE EXPRESS.

Stu,—Yesterday evening • copy of your paper
was placed in my buds, in which certain remarks are made
in reference to an appeal of mine for the Providence•row
Night Refuge, and I trust you will kiedly give me an op-
portunity of replying to the following statement in pull-
auk= :—" As the law stands, neither women nor children
need spend their nights in the streets." This may be
abeolutely true, but I do not believe that it is practically DO.
Last evening I examined eight women who had been to
several of the casual wards, and perhaps the facts stated
by them may explain why the said wards are partly empty,
and why there are still home'ess women and children.
And lint as regards the baths. In one pleas it seems to be
the rule that two women must take the lame bath at once,
and the water is not changed till six women have bathed
And this appears to be the case, however dirty the women
may be, and even though they may have one or more sOfeli.
In another place, the water of the bath was so cold that
the woman shivered several hours after leaving it. Lll the
women gave the same evidence, that the baths in several
places were mast dirty, and three of the women preferred
to sleep in the streets rather than take the baths. In the
second place as regards the dormitories. In more than one
place, the most indecent conversation was held, and the
meet filthy songs were sung ti'l one or two in the Dooming.
When the decent women remonstrated, the peruse alluded
to threatened to tear the ha= from their heads. In one
place the, women slept huddled together on the floor, and in
another place there were two and three women in the same
bed, without the appropriate covering for women. In one
dormitory there were fights several nights, sad the
stronger tweed the wesker from their beds. tinder these
cirourastancea I must dissgree with the other statement in
your paper, that the kindest way of evincing sympathy to
the homeless would be to tend them to the casual wards.
I give thou facts with no other intention than is Justifica-
tion of myself, and it is only fair to add that nose of the
poisons I examined gave any evidence about St. Luke'.
Workhouse. In conclusion, I will only my that last night I
found seven women who had slept in the streets this
winter, and that on several occasions this winter we have
refused admittance to over 30 women in one night. —I
am, Re., DANIEL GILBERT.
22, Finsbury-circus, Feb. 5.

Nier..—A correspondent writes : "A grand ball
wen given here on Wednesday evening last by the Prefect
of Nios for the benefit of the poor. All the rite were
there, including the King of Bavaria and the Duke of
Hamilton. The room selected for the purpose by the pre-
fect was the salle d manger of the new hotel—the Hotel
doe Angle* situsted at the corner of the Promenade des
Anglais and the Jardies Publics. The room was admi-
rably fitted for the purpose, and all the arrangements ware
earned out to the satire satisfaction of the author:t:es of
Moe and the large company of visitors."
RATE or MORTALITY. —The mortality in SETAE of
the chief towns of England is the year 1965 was as follows ;
In Bristol, 233 in every thousand of the (estimated) popu-
lation ; in Loe,loc, 244 ; in Birraiegbam, 241 ; I. Salford.
291 ; in Leeds, 3013 ; in Manchester, 3218 ; in Liver-
pool, eo less than 3619 per thouviod. No doubt the death-
rate in these towns was higher than this in the poorer
quarters. The return for the whole town is to some extent
affected by the greater or less amount of healthy suburb is-
eluded within the municipal or pirlamestsry borough
limits, which are here taken as definieg the extent of
provincial town. 1865 was an unhealthy year, especially
Yorkshire and Lane eshire ; and the mortality for all
England, •41 per thousand, was 115 shave the avenge of
the preceding ten years. Bat with all admissible4gashtioa-
tioo, the Agues are very remarkable—three deaths in
Liverpool io a ntirol•er of population in wh;, h only two
deaths occurred in London. Bristol, or Birmingham, and
four in Manchester to three in those three t .was.