The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-31 00:00:00

QUARTERLY RETURN OF MARRTAGES,
BIRTII'd, AND DEATHS IN ENGLAND.

A return was issued yesterday by the Registrar•Gens-
ral, comprising the births and deaths registered by 2,196
registrars in all the districts of England during the
summer quarter that ended on September 30, 1855 ; and
the marriages in 12,115 churches or chapels, about 3.658
registered places of worship unconnected with the Esta•
blished Church, and 628 Superintendent Registrars'
offices, in that quarter that ended June 30, 1855.
The returns of deaths (says the Registrar-Genera]) ex-
kibit as their general result a favourable state of the
health of the country in*summer, and a striking improve-
ment on the returns of the summer quarter of the pre-
vious year.-, The diminution of the number of marriages
indicates some pressure on the resources of the people
. from the high price of bread ; but the low rate of mor-
tality implies that under the English system of poor laws,
imperfect as it is, the labouring classes suffer less distress
than the workmen of the continent, who have no legal
right, under any circumstances, to relief. Liberality in
the administration of the Poor•law is the natural remedy
of many of the evils of high prices in England.
MARRIAGES.
33,454 marriages were registered in the quarter that
ended on June 30, or less by 1,935 than the number in
the corresponding quarter of the previous year, when the
number of marriages was considerably above the aver-
age. The number of persons married was 76,908. The
annual average rate of the spring quarter is 858 mar-
riages to 100,000 of the population ; in the spring of
1854 it was 872, in the last spring 822 only. In Hamp-
shire, chiefly in Portsea Island, the Isle of Wight, and
Southampton, and in some districts of Buckinghamshire,
Bedfordshire, Northumberland, and Wales, the marriages
increased ; in the mining and manufacturing districts the
greatest decrease is observed, and notably iu the mining
districts of Cornwall, in Staffordshire (Wolverhampton
and Dudley), in Cheshire, in Lancashire (Manchester,
Bolton, and Liverpool), and in the West Riding of
Yorkshire (Halifax and Leeds).
BIRTHS.

154,834 births were registered in the quarter that
ended Sept: 30. This number only exceeds by 99 the
number cf births in the summer quarter of the year
1854, and indicates a rate of birth (3.265) above the aver-
age of the season (3.196 annually). The births increased
to some extent in the counties of Hertford, Northamp-
ton, Essex, Stafford, Worcester, Warwick, Leicester,
Derby, Durham, and Northumberland.
INCREASE OF POPULATION.

154,834 births and 87,934 deaths were registered.
The natural increase of the population of England and
Wales in,-the three months is, therefore, 66,000, which
makes the gain of people in nine mouths is this part of
the empire 157,147. Of this number of immigrants from
S:,otland, Ireland, and foreign countries, no record is
kept. The emigrants from the ports of the United King-
dom at which there are Government emigration officers,
amounted to 44,698 ; of whom 13,486 were ascertained
to be of English, 3,534 of Scotch, 18,701 of Irish, 3,093
of foreign origin ; the origin of 5,884 emigrants was not
distinguished. After taking a due proportion of the
latter class the Engli.,h emigrants will amount to 15,530;
nearly half of whom sailed to Australia and the rest to
oar North American Colonies and the United States.
The number of emicrrants from the United Kingdom,
which was 109,236 'in the summer quarter of 1852, has
fallen to 44,698, which is nearly the same number as
emigrated in the summer quarter of 1847.
THE PRICES OF PROVISIONS AND THE WEATHER.

Among the most important circumstances that affect
the number of births, deaths, and marriages, intuit be
placed thu state of trade, the prices of food, and the
weather. The prices of consols in the three quarters
that ended in September, 1853, 1854, and 1355, were
17,93'70 end 901 ; so the interest of money rose in the
proportion of the reciprocals of these numbers. The
prices of wheat in the same seasons were 51e. 10d., 635.
10d., and 765. id. a quarter ; of beef, by the carcase, in
the .London markets, 511, 50., and sid. a pound. The
prices of these articles of food, therefore, rose in the
interval of two years, wheat 48 per cent., beef 15 per
cent. Mutton, in the three summer quarters, was sold
6.1., 6d., and 6d. a pound. Potatoes by the Water-
side market, Southwark, were sold at 117 e. 6d., 80s., and
a ton. The fall of 37 per cent. in the price of an
.-Miele of food which is consumed at the tables of all
!lasses, and by persons of all ages and both sexes, is an
mportant set-off against the rise in the price of wheat,
and may partly account for the fftct that the public health
is better—the rate of mortality lower—than it was in
the summer of 1883. •
The weather of the three months is described by
Mr. Glaisher. The mean temperature was 60.4 deg.,
and was in every month sightly above the average at
Greenwich. Rain, which was in excess in July, was
below the average in August and September. Since No v.,
1853, 32i inches of rain have been collected about Lou-
don, which is 141 inches or 30 per cent. less than the
average. Wheat was cut at Ryde on July 14, at Aber-
deen on Sept. 10—so that the wheat harvestin the island
extended over nearly two months.
STATE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

87,934 deaths were registered in the quarter that ended
on the last day of September, and the annual rate of
mortality in the quarter was 18.54 deaths to 1,003 liv-
ing, while the average rate of the summer quarter in the
previous ten years was 2.1.91. The annual rate of the
summer quarter of the year 1854 was 24.25, and the
deaths in that year were 113,939 ; the excess being due
in a considerable measure to the epidemic of cholera and
d'arrhcea which broke out at Newcastle and other pla !es
in 1853, and was exceedingly fatal in London and seve-
ral districts in the summer quarter of 1854.
In 117 districts, comprising the chief towns, 44,169
deaths were registered ; while in the 511 districts corn-
pricing the small towns and the country parishes the
deaths were 43,766 ; the annual rate of mortality was
16.43 in the latter districts, and 21.65 in the town dis-
tricts to every 1,000 of the population ; or 5.22 more in
the towns than in the open country.
The health of the towns exhibits some improvement,
or the mortality rate to 1,000 living has fallen from
26.33 in the ten summer quarters (1845.54) to 21.C5 in
the summer quarter of 1855 ; but the great incentive to
exertion remains, that the mortality is certainly not in-
evitably at a higher rate than 16.43 in the summer quar-
ter, as that rate only was actually experienced on the
A 'ea of 511 districts.
The great work of the day is to improve the health
,of
'.he people ; and the first ~tops towards its accomplieh-
emelt are the throwing open building grounds on favour-
able sites, facilitating the distribution of the population
over town and country by railways, supplying the towns
with pure water, draining and opening streets, and re-
moving constantly for immediate depo,,it in the soil the
town guano, which would no doubt prove an excellent
substitute far the guano that is now fetched from the
islands of a foreign state in the Pacific Ocean by British
ships, which could in former ages only be allured round
Cape Horn by silver and gold.
Tice health of London is described in the weekly tables.
The deaths were 13,084 in the quarter, or less by nearly
12,000 than the deaths iu the corresponding quarter of
last year, when the cholera was epidemic, and less by 95
than the deaths in the corresponding quarter of 1853.
The Belgrave sub-distriet, which lies low, and is still sup-
plied with the impure water of the Thames, suffered, the
sup-
plied states, from low continued or gastric fever.
The mortality has before in England as in other coun-
tries been lew after ass epidemic, and it has been hence
inferred that epidemics only car-ryoff prematurely people
who would otherwise die in the course of a few years.
But it will be observed that in every division, although
cholera was not geeerally epidemic, the mortality is
1 river than it was in 1854.
The deaths in the South-Eastern division were 7,532,
or less by 2,010 than in the corresponding quarter of
1854. At Gillingham dysentery and diarrhoea prevailed;
the deaths of some invalids from the Crimea and the Bal-
tic were registered. The cholera still remains about
Sandg,at?, where 5 persons died from the disease, besides
2 iii the town of Folkestone,
tio ed nan thed
314,' oml keens toofn thee Foreign
Legion, who were
Midland district.
diea
InCeunties 5,875 persons
In the South Maeanc
less by 1,100 than died in the summer quarter of the
previous year. Scarlatina has prevailed in Bedford, and
the registrar remarks that the great majority of deaths
from this and other zymotic diseases have occurred
the worst drained and most densely populated localities."
In and sln the Eastern Counties—Essex,
Nor-
folk—the mortality fell nearly the, same extent, and was
A
at a lower rata than it was in 1853. river bargeman
died of cholera in West Ham ; he was brought from Pop-
lar in London. Two men were brought ashore 1
of "malignant cholera" at Lowestoft.
In the South. Western Counties, where the mortality
was not raised by cholera in 1854, the mortality Ny,s
below the average in 1855 thus implying a favourable
Fanitary constitution of they seasonquite independentiey
qui
of any previous removal of weakly people by epidemic
cholera. The Register of Redruth says :—" People are
now beginning to think that cleanliness and the removal
ef nuisances from near their houses are conducive to
health ;" and he notices that the "deaths are much be-
low the average." The "removal of the muck" to soine,
distance from the farm-houses and cottages would not
(.:nly be conducive to the health of the farmers' aed
labourers' families, but lessen the mortality of every kind
of stock.

The 'West Midland Counties exhibit a low rate of mor-
tality (0,754 deaths) ; Birmingham has lost some lives
from diarrhoea, but has been on the whole unusually
healthy.

In the North Midland Counties the deaths are low in
numbers (5,305), when compared with the deaths of pre-
vious years.
14,903
deaths were registered in Cheshire and Lanea-
nst 17,229 deaths which occurred in the sum-
shire, agai
mer quarter
of last year. Diarrhoea was becoming pre-
valent in Chester;
and one death from cholera was
re-
gistered. gistere
d . Liverpool and Manchester exhibit glens 'of-
increased salubrity.
In Yorkshire the deaths were 9,189,_,. ...aga_ini against 10,80 in
the corresponding quarts- of 18a4 , Leeds and Hull
were healthier than usual.
The Northern Counties lost 5,001 lives, against 7,051
in 1853 and 5,914 in 1854. The great outbreak.. inof
... mortality that
cho-
lera in Newcastle-upon-Tyne rai'ed the e e,
agab-st
town to 2,805 in the summer quarter of 15,D0.
532 in the summer quarter of the present yea'. ~,„, ,
e
The deaths in Monmouthshire and Wales
and the mortality was less than in either of the summer
quarters of the two previous years.
The decrease of the mortality in some districts is strik-
ing, and the registrars in their notes endeavour to sc•
count for this evident fact. Some refer the improved
health of the people to the fine weather; others to active
employment in the harvest ; others to the removal of
the population, either in search of employment, or by
(Natur,g into the militia, and into the ranks of the array ;
in the rninirg district of Itedruth the registrar eon-
te iv es that "the frugality and temperance" promoted
by the high price ~f provisions has been salutary; in other
e;.;triets the benefits of improved health are connected
r,ith " goad wages and plentiful work ;" in many places
the utility of sanitary measures is admitted. The
registrar of Pontesbury, who has registered no deathfor