The Express.
London, England, 1867-02-05 00:00:00

lIUSUARY

PESTIL FE. 4,

sitting of the Committee id Sixty-
▪ ; mamma to the report of the Com-
• •.1 by NI. Lumpy, was
to. The prolooMeS tlw Onieht-
,tl.4 trratit x Iwt wee!' flung:try and the Trans-
.thatt prionices, a ith the view of assimilating
thk, re4tilatios: in force with regard to trade, cus-

t•. 111., T.LIII, .1, A, indirect taxes, and cumency
thr..aglpait the empire. The special debate is ter-
bid: lied, nod the report of the Committee of Fifteen
Le. been nuall) :rlopteil. The day after toduorrow
thr t, . luti..uof the t 'onunittee of Sixty-seven will
~Ibuilited to the approval of the Diet. Count
Ardrassy is expected here front Vienna to-day.

SOUTH GERMANY.
STUTTGART, FEB. 4.

The plenipotentiaries of the South German
fates, appointed to assemble here to consider the
subject of military reorganisation, held their first
eofewnee yesterday. The conferences will tenni-
s:de, it is believed, to-morrow.

DENMARK.
COPENHAGEN, FEB. 4.

In to-day's sitting of the Folkothing, Count
Frijsenborg, President of the Ministry, in reply to
a .pirdimi from Deputy Carlsen, declared that it
would he impossible to give explanations at the
present inoinent relative to tho foreign policy of the
cabinet.

ITALY.

FLORENCE, FEB. 4.

To-day, in the Chamber of Deputies, Signor
Amalfi gave sonic explanations relative to the bill
he had introduced proposing the issue of one
milliard lire in paper currency. The Minister of
Finance and Signor Lanza opposed the bill, which
was subsequently rejected. Signor Semenza ex-
plained the provisions of a bill for removing the
restrictions upon the establishment of new banks.
The Chamber, with the concurrence of Signor Scia-
loja, allowed the bill to be brought in. The
Bureaux of the Chamber will meet to-morrow and
the day after to-morrow, so that the next public
sitting will not be held until Thursday.

FLORENCE, Flo. 4, Evromu.

The first bureau of the Chamber of Deputies
ha., decided against the bill for the liquidation of
the ecclesiastical property. The committee on the
bill will hold its first sitting to-morrow. The italic
believes that it will draw up a fresh bill. The
Opinion,: of this evening contradicts a report that
the ministry had resolved to withdraw the bill.

THE BANK OF HOLLAND.
AMSTERDAM, FEM. 4.
The Bank of Holland has reduced its tate of
iiscount from 4 to 31 per cent.

INDIA.
(M DIRECT OVERLAND TELEGRAPH.)
BOMBAY, JAN. 18, 5.7 p.H.

Ib. shirting', 6r. 14a. Cotton firm and active.
Dhollerah, 290. Shipments of the week, 30,300
kJes. Exchange on London, Is. 111 d. Govern-
ment Securities: Four per Cents., 884 ; Five per
Cents., 105! ; Five-and-s-Half per Cents., 1104.
Freights to Liverpool, 275. 641.

CALCUTTA, Jam. 17.
811 b. shirting., Sr. Ss.; 40's mule twist,
Exchange on London, Is. II,;(1. Freights to
England, 6111 s.
These telegrams base occupied seventies days is trans-
states.

f
th.ft:ZN BOARD 0 F
Diocesanr
dEo A.T.) 11t iNon. A mi. :ledit y
ester-
was
11.7 afternoon at London-house ' • the Bishop of London in
t(e chair. There were present the Right Hon. G. .1.
4orchen, M.P., Sir Walter C. James, Bart., Mr. T. D.
the Dean of Westminster, Archdeacon
_4•l..ir, Mr. H. Chester, Mr. H. 1.. Hoare, Mr. IL
!torsion, the Rev. Dr. J. A. Homey, the Rev. Dr. Butler
hi lisrrewl. Rev. Canon Conway, the Revs. Dr. Irons,
Miller, R. Burgess, J. K. Kemper, W. Roger., Alex.
%/hon. H. White, D. Coleridge. Henry Howarth, B.
lory, E. IL Jones, .1. IL Hamilton, Nugent Wnde, A.
It. Morris, R. Holme, A. D. hlaclagan, D. Wilson,
L'.. Ilumphry, and the Rev. John Oakley, organising
l',ulary, and others. A long report from a sub-oom-
=ate* on the state of education in the diocese, and the
invableness of some obligatory measures to secure the
ut.islante of children at school, was read and ordered to
Er t ken into consideration at a future meeting. Notice
ti the (Arming motion bad been given by the Rev. R.
14'g,ss: -" That in future all grants made to schools not
tin-Ay in union with the board, be accompanied with a
4) .4 the terms of union (these terms having been
triguLdly the same as those of the National Society), and
ffie form of application for union ; and that the said
!er-,t, together with a list of all schools in union, be
eu...f.irth printed, as in former years, in futore reports of
tit Loden Diocesan Board of Education." To which the
fsll,sing amendment was by Mr. H. Cheater,
.corded by the Rev. I)r. Irons, vicar of Brompton,
a+, tce Bev. Dr. Miller, vicar of Greenwich—" That the
committee may graot aid towards the promo-
sof education in the diocese in any case where the cir-
Ltumces shall seem to warrant it, provided that the
pensm who has the cure of souls in the place
`,c the rant is to take effect, do concur in the plica-
ar the bishop do signify his opinion that such con-
may be dispensed with." On a division, the
was carried by a majority of 9, there being
awl 7 against it. The following rider was then
1.5 Mr. H. Chester, and seconded by the Dean of
and carried unanimously :—" That in pane-
" 4' foregoing resolution, the diooesan board has no de-
tirpsit from its friendly relations with the National

I vst.—EPPs's COCOA. —The very agreeable
'r"'-' this preparation has rendered it a general favratrite.
..1 *obtaining, with a reflued and grateful gavour
' sperial ni.le of ',reparation applied, this voeua
1r habitual beverage for breakfast by thousands
•• " .s before. Cocoa stands very much higher
• • • liassall says. “and contains every
' to the irrliwth and sustenance of the hotly." It
• • ;.1) kr.ring water or milk on the prepara-
...l , and W' putisets.—{Adverthiement.l

AMERICA.

(REUTERS TELEGRAMS.

QUEENSTOWN, Fen. 4.

Tlw Litman steamship City of New York, (ruin
New York on the 26th ult., arrived here at 10.30
p. t' t-thy. with 162 passengers, and 29,05) dols.
iu specie. After landing 16 of the former she
pr. weeded at 11 p.m. fur Liverpol.

(l'er the City of New York,ria Queenstown.)
NEW YORK, JAN.

It is understood that the Judiciary Committee
will not report upon the impeachment of President
Johnson until the close of the present Congres
sional session. It is reported that John Surratt
w ill he summoned to give testimony in reference
to Mr. Johnson's alleged complicity in the assassi-
i,iti.m of President Lincoln.

The Indiana and Nevada Legislatures havo rati-
the vimatitutiiinal amendment.

The recent decision of the supreme Court of
Alabama, ileclarinl that the government of that
Suite was not destroyed by the rebellion, renders
valid all contracts in Alabama under legislative
enactment during the rebellion.
The Maryland Legislature has abolished the law
permitting the sale of negroes into slavery f..r
crime.

'l'll,, Tennessee Legislature has amended the
franchise law so as to admit negroes to vote. The
Supreme Court of Tennessee is considering the
cnstituti.mality of this step.
The Canadian council has determinea to pay all
claims for damages by the Fenian raids, and to
present the bill to the United States.
The 43rd, tiOth, and 25th Regiments have been
ii.rdered home from Canada.

MEXICO.
NEW YORK, JAN. 26.

Republican accou►►ta received here from Ven►
Cniz, roi New Orleans, state that Is,ooo repub-
licans are ►nenacing the city of Mexico. The
French continue their preparations to evacuate the
country.

(MO)1 OPR mrret %I. CORRVININDENT.)
NEW YORK, JAN. 19.

Since the last decision of the Supreme Court in
the Missouri Teat Oath case, and the case of the
oath prescribed for lawyers practising in the Su
preme Court, nothing of importance bearing on the
reconstruction question has occurred. People are
cogitating over this, and wondering what will come
next. I think there are very few men to whom
die situation does not seem every day more and
more untenable, but nothing will be done until the
next Congress meets. An officer who served with
some distinction during the war, and has since had
charge of a district under the Freedmen's Bureau
in the State of :eorgia, has just come to New
York, and the account ho gives of the state of
things within his jurisdiction is very suggestive.
For instance, an armed and mounted party of white
men visited the negro quarter on a plantation, and
informed the inmates that they were United States
detectives who had been sent to search for arms.
They searched, and, in doing so, robbed the unfortu-
uates of everything easily portable of any value to be
found in the houses. During the confusion, some
one slipped off and gave the alarm on the next
plantation, and when the marauders arrived
there they found the negroes up and ready, armed
with such weapons as they could find within reach.
A row follows, and one of the whites snaps a pistol,
which leads to the party being overwhelmed and
carried in custody before the owner of the planta-
tion, who recognised them, and to whom they gave
false names and a trumped-up amount of their
reasons for being abroad at that late hour. During
the scuffle which followed one of the whites was
killed, and some others injured. A few days later
the sheriff appeared on the scene, and arrested
eighty negroes for their share in the affair, and in
making the arrest the posse killed five. The pri-
soners were taken, tried in the county town, and
while waiting in the market-place, one of the
judges of the criminal court came up and began
reviling the prisoners, and finally drew his pistol
and shot at a portion of the person of one of them
in which the wound was sure to cause intense pain
without causing immediate death. He tired a second
shot in the same place, as the poor wretch lay
writhing on the ground. On the following day
this same " judge " took his seat in court for the
trial of the remaining prisoners, and one of theni
who had been prominent in defending his house
against the robbers was found guilty, and sen-
tenced to be hanged. The officer who tells the
story at once sent in reports of what was going on
to his superiors, but without securing authority
to interfere. As a last resort, he asked for a
troop of cavalry to assist him in seizing some cot-
ton supposed to belong to the Confederacy, and this
was accorded him. He encamped them in front of
the county gaol, and as the officer in command
could tell nothing of the service on which he was
ordered, people came to the conclusion that they
were there to prevent the execution of the negro.
And the agent of the Bureau really did intend to
use them for this purpose, though he, of course,
took care not to avow it, and was very glad to have
the whites draw their conclusions without his aid.
On seeing this, the latter determined to make a
virtue of necessity, and got up a petition for the re-
prieve of the negro, which the governor, who is
a humane and sensible man, at once granted. The
officer of whom I speak was, when on his way
home to New York, after resigning, entertained at
a supper by some of the principal men of Savannah,
as he had been personally very popular in the dis-
trict. During the evening the conversation turned
upon the state of the country, and all present were
agreed that
.* return to military rule was Owe-
lutely necessary, that society was in such a disor-
ganised condition that the protection of the civil
courts was worthless. The whole State is literally
ravaged by blackguard whites, calling themselves
" regulators," who make a business of prowling
about, and robbing and murdering negroes. One
of the company related, in illustration of the state
of things, an experience he had had himself two or
three weeks previous. His complexion is dark,
and he might be mistaken in the dark for a mulatto.
He was seized in the night on the high road and
dragged through the woods 'for some miles, to a
place where his captors found some of their con-
federates lounging round a stake at which a negro
was slowly burning ; and they were about to sub-
ject him to a similar fate, in spite of his protesta-
tions that he was a white man, when he was luckily
recognised by one of the gang and liberated. They
had taken him for a mulatto, who was suspected of
having given some information about their doings
to the military authorities.
In Texas, the State judges and juries seem to
have combined together for a sort of legal war on
the United States authorities. An officer and two
men who entered a house in pursuit of the mur-
derer of two negroes were a few weeks ago indicted
for burglary, but the murderer was at once ac-
quitted. The last exploit of the State judiciary
has been an attempt to arrest General Heiutzel-

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 5, 1867.

man, who is in command of the district, for re-
fusing to give up two men whom he holds under
the Freedman's Bureau Bill fur offences against
negroes. It ought to be remarked that to pass
into the custody of a Texan sheriff is too often
only a roundabout way of being delivered to a
mob. Throughout the interior of the State a
loan whose offence is in any way peculiarly ob-
noxious to " the citizens " has a very small chance
of a trial. Judge Lynch sits upon him in the street,
and the mob executes him, the sheriff and the
local bar often assisting in the tragedy.
Everybody who knows anything of the con-
dition of the South acknowledges that, if the
military were withdrawn, and Mr. Johnson's
theory of the status of the Southern States were
rigidly acted upon, there would be neither in
fact nor in form any protection whatever for
negroes ur Unionists. And yet to continue mili-
tary government in time of peace is practically
to set aside the Federal constitution. The dilemma
in which all men who love justice as well as
liberty find themselves placed is a very embarrass-
ing one. The most likely road out of it is, f think,
to be found in the theory which some lawyers of
distinction have already begun to broach, that
treason is any resistance to the laws on a great
scale by whole communities, and that treason ex-
isting, Congress has the power to establish special
modes of punishing offences against the govern-
ment. Ido not say that this construction is not a
strained one, or that the adoption of any such
theory would not essentially alter the character of
the Federal government. But when a govern-
ment finds itself compelled to choose between the
pemuss• ion of a barbarous anarchy over half its ter-
ritory, or the assertion of its authority under some
form of law, strained constructions are apt to be
made to do a good deal of service.
The latest incidents in the impeachment business
is a savage onslaught on the President by Mr.
Sumner in the Senate Chamber—the severest, I
think, which has yet been made by a man of Mr.
Sumner's character and standing. But these
attacks now produce very little sensation. Mr.
Johnson's speeches last summer reduced him to a
position in •which attacks on him are as little ex-
citing as if he were only a cabman. It is a great
pity on everybody's account, his own as well as the
country's, that some means could not be found of
consigning him to private life. The charges against
him of corruption in the granting of pardons and
bestowal of offices have assumed so much distinct-
ness, and are now so much talked of, that I doubt
very much whether he can, in decency, shirk
inquiry. Even his own friends begin to talk
of it with less indignation than they displayed a
month ago. _

NEW YORK, JAN. 22.

The judiciary committee of the house is making
such slow progress with the investigation into Mr.
Ashley's charges against Mr. Johnson, that it is
quite evident nothing will be done towards im-
peachment by the present Congress. The work
will be left for the next one, but there seems to be
reason to believe that the advocates of impeach-
ment are gaining recruits, although the wiser and
steadier Men of both houses are opposed to it,
and the reason is obvious. The leaders of the im-
peachment movement are the most zealous and
audacious men of the radical party ; the only men
in Congress who boldly attempt to lead public
opinion. The more moderate men, on the contrary,
are nervously afraid of going beyond it, and in
their anxiety to keep within bounds are afraid to
initiate any policy, and are ready to accept any-
body who speaks with confidence as an exponent
of the sentiment of the country. This gives men
like Stevens and Boutwell an immense advantage,
and enables them In most cases to prescribe
the tests of party orthodoxy, and apply them
with unflinching severity. The standard is every
month raised higher and higher, and all recusants
and faineants are whipped up to it. Of late there is
a tendency to exact from the rank and tile a decla-
ration of willingness to support the impeachment
as a proof of their party fidelity, and to brand a
refusal as a sign of general lukewarmness. From
this the common herd naturally shrink, and they
derives little encouragement from those who are
opposed to impeachment. The republican press
generally is opposed to it, but it is prevented by
the cum:imams from offering anything more than
a mild opposition to a measure which is proposed
by some of the leading men of its own party. The
mass of the electors, although opposed to it like-
wise, are, as usual here, somewhat deficient in ex-
pression, and while insisting peremptorily on gene-
ral fidelity to party principles, are somewhat chary
about interfering with the conduct of party tactics.
These they are apt to leave toCorigreas-men, except
in very great crises ; and I doubt if the general
fear and dislike of the impeachment will find any
strong formal expression until it will be too late
to be of any use. Still the business men very
likely will, before March, if the movement goes
on, doubtless take measures to bring the weight
of their opinion to bear on the house.
Congress is verging nearer and nearer to a
decision that the constitutional amendment is, if
not a finality, a failure, and that a substitute
must now be provided for it. Both Mr. Boutwell
and Mr. Stevens have eitherproduced or are prepar-
ing reconstruction bills, the main feature of which is
the calling of new constitutional conventions, to be
voted for by the whole loyal population—a scheme
of which I have already spoken more than once,
and which seems certainly the most practical and
rational yet presented to the country. But, on
the other hand, a good many journals are protest-
ing strongly against any attempt to treat the
amendment as a failure, without waiting longer for
its adoption. They say it cannot be fairly said as
yet that the South has rejected it. It is true most
of the Southern States have failed, or refused to
adopt it, but they have doubtless done so in the
belief into which they have been cheated by Mr.
Johnson's conduct and language, that he would
find them some easier road out of the difficulty.
Therefore, it is said, it is the part of wisdom as
well as kindness to wait a little longer, and give
them time for reconsideration.

The business world is still greatly depressed,
and the dephesion has been aggravated during the
past week by the most tremendous snowstorm
which has occurred in many years—certainly in
ten, and perhaps in twenty—and it surpasses any
that has occurred in the memory of this generation
in the wideness of the area over which it has
ranged. Generally these great storms do not
traverse both the eastern and western States in the
same degree of intensity. If they are severe in
Chicago or St. Louis, they are mild in Boston
and New York, and rice mold. But this one seems
to have swept over two thousand square miles with
uniform fury, and owing to the interruption of
communication which it has caused over the
most thickly settled and industrious portion of the
Union, and the labour that is required to clear
roads, and streets, and railways of the obstructions,
the loss may fairly be set down at millions of
dollars. We have had less snow here than in most
other parts of the country, but still the groat
thoroughfares wore in this city rendered almost

impassable for a whole day, and now, nearly a week
after the storm, nearly all public vehicles have to
be drawn with double teams. For two days traffic
was nearly suspended on every railroad leading out
of New York, and on most of them the trains have
not yet begun to run regularly. We were nearly
two days without a mail from either Boston or
I Philadelphia, and from many other parts of the
country our only news still comes by telegraph. In
Boston the storm raged with the utmost fury, and
the whole of thesuburbs are still buried in the snow.
In some places in the neighbourhood of the city
the children were unable to get home, and had
to pass the night in the school-houses, and
people were overwhelmed in the very streets.
All the railroads were blocked up, and are still
blocked up, except, I believe, the New York line.
Similar stories come in from every direction. You
; have, of course, plenty of experience of snow
stones in England, but there, distances are shorter,
the country thickly populated, labour plenty, and
travelling the pleasure or duty of the very few. '
Here the distances are enormous, most parts of
the country very thinly settled, and labour very
scarce and very dear, and the travelling to and fro
of all ages, sexes, and conditions incessant. Con-
sequently, a general stoppage of the railroads by
snow is a vastly heaver calamity than it can ever
be in England. Herds of cattle, for instance,
come fifteen hundred miles to the New York mar-
ket, and you may guess the loss or risk entailed
on owners by having them snowed up, with the
thermometer 10 degrses or 13 degrees below zero,
in one of the wild woods, or wild praries,
through which the railroads anywhere
a little way back from the seaboard,
mostly pass. And 1 may mention, as an illustra-
tion of the inconvenience and even hardships which
these storms entail on individuals, that some hun-
dreds of passengers between this city and Phila-
delphia have been living for the last four days
packed together in the greatest discomfort in small
inns and taverns in various villages along the road,
and were only released from this literally " durance
vile " yesterday morning.
The storm has had the effect of bringing into
very clear and striking prominence the defects in
the relations of the great railroad companies to the
community. During the very height of it Com-
modore Vanderbilt, who owns the whole of one of
the northern lines, and nearly the whole of the
other running from this city to Albany, and
manages them both, came to an open rupture with
the New York Central, which connects with his
lines at Albany, and traverses the centre of
this State for some four hundred miles, forming
one of the great lines, in fact the greatest
of the lines over which goods and passengers go
from New York and New England to the " great
West." Vanderbilt is a hard-headed, hard-fisted,
enterprising, and somewhat unscrupulous Dutch-
man, who has risen from the position of a boatman
on the Hudson River to that of one of the richest
—if not the richest—men on the continent, and is,
perhaps, one of the largest shipowners, and is cer-
tainly the largest railroad owner, in the world. He
manages his two lines, the Harlem and Hudson
River, as if they were his private property, with a
minimum of outlay and a minimum of attention to
the public comfort. He has had disputes of long
standing with the New York Central, as to the
rate at which they should pay him for the goods
from the West remitted to the Hudson River and
Harlem roads, for transmission from Albany to
New York. On Thursday, in the middle of the
storm, they seem to have come to a crisis, for Van-
derbilt suddenly stopped communication with
tho New York Central—refused to send hie
trains across the bridge, to connect with it
at Albany, and " shot " his passengers and their
luggage, like so much rubbish, on the eastern bank
of the river, leaving them to find their way on
foot, over the ice, to the city, nearly a mile and a
half distant. The inconvenience of this at such a
season was of course horrible ; and then the stop-
page in the transmission of goods at this point,
when the canals and the river are closed, seriously
endangered the practical monopoly of the carrying
business from the north-west to the seaboard,
which New York has long enjoyed, and for which
Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore have long
sighed, but sighed in vain. The result was that)
I think, for tho first time, a determined and
vigorous effort was made to remind the companies
that they have duties as well as rights, and that
they do not own the railroads in foe simple. An
act was promptly introduced into the Senate, and
read three times at a single sitting, providing that
where two lines which connect shall, for
any reason, disagree about the rates or terms
on which passenger' or goods shall be transferred
from one to the other, the State engineer shall
interfere and settle the difference, leaving the dis-
putants the right of appeal against his decision to
the Supreme Court, but binding them in the mean-
time to submit to his ruling, under a penalty of
3,000 dollars a day for every day of disobedience,
and at the same time subjecting the president and
directors to a heavy personal fine or imprisonment.
This seems to have brought Vanderbilt to his
senses, for the embargo was at once raised, and
both lines are now running as usual. But the bill
will nevertheless be passed, and the incident has
given a great impetus to the feeling which has been
for some time gaining ground, that there must
before very long be decided steps taken to give the
State greater control over the railroads than
it now enjoys. Massachusetts has set the
example in this movement by the commence-
ment of an agitation which has for ita direct
object the appropriation by the State of the
Western Railroad, connecting Boston with
Albany. In that case the State is already part
owner of the road, but the arguments which have
been used with apparently irresistible force in
favour of the appropriation of that line by the go-
vernment have still greater weight in the case of
the New York and Pennsylvania lines. In addition
to the commercial and social reason for some great
and radical change in the management of the rail-
roads, and their subjection, if not to State control,
at least to rigid State inspection, there are political
ones of the utmost cogency, but to state them with
any dearness would require a letter in itself.

WE& 'IC ON THE LA NCASH I Ri-COANT. —So I'TH -
PORT, FRB. 2. This morning, about nine o'clock, a vessel
use discovered on the Ralthouse Sand Bank (rePorte
Admiral Barton). The lifeboat of the National Lifeboat
Institution was thereupon promptly launched and pro-
ceeded to her asaistance. She proved to be the sloop Per-
severance, of Liverpool, bound from Barrow to Preston
with a cargo of iron ore. The crew of two men bad lashed
themselves to the rigging of their vessel, which had sunk,
and they had been there for six hours. The lifeboat was
happily the means of rescuing the poor fellows and of
bringing them safely ashore. It blew hard last night and
this morning. This valuable lifeboat has been the means,
during the past five year of rescuing 48 persons from six
wrecked vessels. The Lytham lifeboat, which likewise
belongs to the society, was also launched to the assistance
of the crew of the Perseverance, but the men were saved
by the Southport lifeboat shortly before its snivel.
Do Riltitlell DILICIOUS RIVALINTA AltallfoA
FOon Mai Urfarsl2+ indiguitloo,4wastaina, consumatz
downy, eonsuposioa,
pla diantura, ner!ona
liver. and inta Cure co. G 8,411— • Hone, July
12, 1806.—Tbestootaohoom heath of the Holy rather is euellent.
dime absadonbg all other remedies, lie has oartinedal=
entirely to Du Barry's rood. and his Holiness cannot penis
this excellent food too ttlthly."—Deustlann Mier Du BUM and
Co., No. 77. Regeutetrest, Diodes, W. lu tins, at Is. lid.;
es. 9d. lßbs.. tit, tabs.. 404.--(Adetsibrand.)

THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

(Prom the Day News.)

Tee Rentertaa-aserases Return of the vital
statistics of the quarter ended December 31st is
very satisfactory as regards its leading features.
Thu birth rate was unusually high throughout the
whole country, with the exception of Cornwall,
where the births decreased considerably as a con-
sequence of extensive migration of the mining
population, whose industry, paralysed by a general
collapse of mining operations, has been diverted
into other channels in more prosperous parts of
England or abroad. A sure index of depression
in a community is that afforded by the marriage
registers, which show that in Cornwall 2,162
couples were married in nine months of 1865, and
only the reduced number of 1,821 during a cor-
responding period of last year. Happily the deaths
have followed the same course as the births, in-
stead of, as frequently happens, rising in
number in consequence of the straitened
condition of the people. But, notwithstanding
this untoward exception to the general well-being,
the REGINTRAR-GENtRAL sings quite a paean over
the review of matters sanitary and social mining
within his province :—" The aspect of the returns
"is favourable in every respect. Marriages have
" abounded ; births have followed in unusual num-
' " bers ; and deaths, in spite of an imminent epide-
" inic, have been less frequent than in the corre-
" spending seasons of former years. Hygienic
" measures have been prosecuted with unusual
" activity, and apparently with good results."
Yet, as nothing human is absolutely perfect,
there are one or two little shadows which certainly
are not unworthy of notice in the prospect which
the Reolsremt-GeNutAl. contemplates so serenely.
The upward tendency of the price of wheat, for
instance, is not a trifling matter. The average price
per quarter in the first three months of 1865
was 38a. 4d., and from that time the rise has been
progressive ; 40s. Gd., 435. 3d., 445. 10d., 455. 61.,
465. 6d., 515., to 565. Bd. per quarter, represents
the extent to which the staple article of food has
become augmented in value within two years.
And concurrently with this increase there is an
accession of recipients of in-door parochial relief :
the average number relieved on the last day of
each week in the December quarter of 1866 was
from four to six thousand in excess of the number
I relieved in any of the corresponding seasons since
1862.

Wheat also was dearer last quarter than in any
quarter since September, 1862. We have only to
take a yearly average to see how steadily in-door
pauperism is affected by the price of wheat. Thus
in 1864 the mean price of wheat was 40s. 2d.,
and the mean weekly indoor pauperism was
126,753 ; in 1865 the relation was as 41s. 10d.
to 128,596; and in 1866 as 495. IW. to
129,534. Outdoor pauperism, on the contrary,
has decreased from 788,689 to 758,559, and
736,352, in the last three years. From 1864 to
1866 there was an increase of 25 per cent. in the
price of wheat, and of 21 per cent. in the
recipients of indoor relief ; there was, however, a
decrease of 7 per cent. in outdoor pauperism,
and of 5 per cent. on the aggregate of both classes
of recipients.
Facts such as these are very suggestive, and
many deductions may be drawn from them, but
none more certain than that a time of dear bread
is pregnant with distress to the thousands of our
hapless fellow-creatures who live on the border
land between independence and abject poverty.
To them the rise of a halfpenny or a penny per
loaf just makes the difference between self-main-
tenance and pauperism, and hence arises one great
cause of the fluctuation in the Poor-law returns at
different seasons. Of course there are other ele-
ments to complicate the question, such as the con-
dition of the labour market, and so on, but these
seem rather applicable to outdoor pauperism than
to the more confirmed dependence which indoor
relief implies.
The state of the public health during the last
quarter appears to have been good, for the rate of
mortality, both in rural and urban districts, was
below the average of ten corresponding quarters.
The exceptional cases of unhealthiness are ac-
counted for only too easily. People will forget
the proverb that one cannot touch pitch and yet
be undefiled ; they will drink water charged with
all manner of pollution ; they will not attend to
the simplest measures of precaution, even when
there is no pecuniary sacrifice requisite ; so they I
die, out of all reasonable proportion, suicides in
fact if not in name. Last summer, cholera had
hundreds of foci in England ; it was diffused over
the remotest parts of the kingdom ; but the
REMSTRAR-GENERAL tells us that its ravages have
been restricted "everywhere, except where people
" are living in open violation of the laws of
" health." The disease has revisited, like other epi-
demics, its old strongholds ; such of them as had
been set in order since the previous visitation
have, like the Israelites when the Egyptian first-
born were destroyed, been passed by unscathed,
while others have suffered heavily. The colliery ;
villages of Durham and Northumberland, and the
rapidly increasing populations of many Welsh dis-
tricts, have had to pay the penalty which Nature
always exacts for a violation of her laws. The
substitution of a better quality of drinking-water
is very commonly referred to by the various
registrars as accounting for the healthy condition!
of their districts ; and, on the other hand, ex- I
plicit statements connect a high death rate from
symotic causes with reckless disregard of cleanli-
ness in body and dwelling. Neglect of vaccine- I
tion, overcrowded and unventilated houses, the
pollution of rivers running through large towns,
with sewage which (more or less diluted) is drunk
by the inhabitants, and the " filthy habits of the
" people "—these arc some of the reasons as-
signed
for the prevalence of cholera, typhus, scar-I
-latina, measles, and other diseases like pre-1
ventible character.

There can be no possible doubt of the efficacy
of hnienic measures in neutralising conditions
otherwise unfavourable to health, as is shown by
the low death rate prevailing iu some of the large
cities of the kingdom, while others are mukted
heavilyfor their lukewarmness in sanitary improve-
ment. The Sanitary Act of 1866 was a great
advance on previous legislative efforts in the matter
of cleanliness, and flinch good has already been
wrought by its instrumentality ; but there are yet
many loopholes of escape from its provisions in
consequence of the divided jurisdiction of local
authorities, and of the fact that its enactments are
in too many caeca permissive instead of peremptory.
Some day, perhaps, wo shall arrive at the conclu-
sion that the public health is as worthy the
attention of a special central authority as any
other branch of our domestic affairs.

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