The Sun.
London, England, 1854-08-25 00:00:00

BIRTHS, DEATHS, AND MARRIAGES.

We published on Monday an-abstract of the •
Report of the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths,
and Marriages, for the year 1852; and it will be
interesting to compare the facts which it states
with those of previous years. Taking marriages
first—and dividing them into those celebrated ac-
cording to the rites of the Established Church, and
those otherwise performed—we find that the sta-
tistics of 1852, and the four.preeeding years, are as '
follows:

Established Church. Otherwise. Total.
1848 121,469 16,761 138,280
1849 112330,918532
18,701 141,883
1850
21,785 152,738
• 1851 130,958 23,248 154,206
1852 133,882
24,900 158,782
It will be observed that, of the whole increase in
the last year, amounting to 4,576, very nearly
3,000 are due to marriages included in the first
' column. Between 1850 and 1851, these had scarcely
increased at all-the whole difference between
sult may,
forth iang gtrbeegasteeesenodf teheelutmwno
;yaenards
thisbein greac co u n ted
perhaps,cres a in c hold which the Church possesses on
be taken as some evidence of the in-
' the affections of the people. The number of
Roman Catholic marriages has risen from 3,658-
its total in the first year of the series-to 7,459 ;
and that of marriages in registered places of won.
ship belonging to other Christian denominations,
efrooumrseB: 00
small,to 10,017. The returns from Quakers
and Jews which are separately entered, are, of
but the
e latter
numbers show
havea tendencyb
n
Quaker marriages, 67, 53, 69, 65, 57; and Jewish,
186, 229, 260, and 247. The number of mar-
riages performed in the Superintendent-Regis-
-1851, and to 7,100 in 1852 ;
trar's office rose from 4,920 in 1848 to 6,813 in
ee
to increase. Tne
stillinw
attentionhoxcche
etdtboiensgetlyaer
de
viffeforyeurenudet;Li:;ardrediionitusashieryt dpyisrofeatarrert:tsrc;ahlenzsit
although there are counties in England comprising.
populations three or four times as
large as that of
Devonshire, yet, in each of the four most recent
years, a greater number of civil unions had taken
place in the last-mentioned district than in any
other in England and Wa:es. In Lancashire,
which has more than two millions of inhabitants,
the total number of marriages so performed during
the four years was only 1,716 ; while in Devon-
shire, with a population of less than 600,000, the
corresponding total was 1,911. A slight change
has since taken place, the additions made during
the year 1852 being, to the former county 605, and
to the latter 580. We are unable satisfactorily to
account. for the peculiarity, audit is almoit equally.
surprising to find that in some other parts of the
country-as Cheshire, for example, where it might
have been anticipated that the services of theSu-
perintendeut-Registrar would have been not unac-
ceptable to a considerable portion of the population
-marriages are, with' hardly au exception, cele-
brated with the religious solemnities approved by
one denomination of Christians or another.
Considerable progress appears to have been made
towards ascertaining and recording the ages and
previous conditions of the persons married during
the year. In the report for 1851-the first in which
any classification of the kind was attempted-these
particulars were given as to 56,347 cases out of
154,206 ; and for 1852, they are furnished as to
83,124 couples out of the total, 158,782. Twenty-
three females became wives before attaining 16
years of age, and the number annually married
gradually increases till the period between 20 and
25 is reached. During those five years, 41,245
women-or one-half of the whole number whose
ages were ascertained-appear to have found their
husbands ; and the proportion assignable to the
quinquennial intervals then diminishes rapidly, end-
ing with " one" between 75 and 80, and "one"
still more antiquated bride, who ranks as " 80 and
upwards." Tho lowest age at which any individual
of the male sex entered into the contract appears to
have been 16, and two instances are recorded in
which precocious youths availed themselves at that
early period of their legal capacity ; but instances
of marriage under 20 are exceedingly rare. The
following period of five years accounts for 38,000
-nearly half of the whole number of males ; but
even at the advanced age of 80, five widowers con-
tracted new alliances. The favourite quarter for
marriages, taking the aggregate furnished by the
whole country, is still the last of the year, while
the first is in great disfavour. The actual numbers
are, for the first quarter of 1852, 32,977 ; for the
second, 40,092 ; for the third, •38,400 ; and for the
fourth, 47,313-an amount almost half as large
again as the return for the first. There are, how-
ever, the same local peculiarities which have been
observed in former reports. In the metropolitan
districts, the third quarter has, for the last five
years, been most popular, but appears to be gra-
dually yielding to the first. The only other ex-
ception to the general rule is found in the returns
from the northern counties ; but from comparison
with previous reports, it appears to have been an
accidental irregularity. The information furnished
as to the number of persons able-perhaps it
would be more correct to say, willing and able--
to sign their names in the marriage registers, gives
little indication of the advance of eduction. In
1848, 43,166 men, and 62,771 women, out of
138,230 who were married, signed with marks ;
and in 1852, the proportions were, of the former
48,421, and of the latter 70,772, out of 158,782.
The number of cases in which both parties signed
ith marks has risen during the same period from,
32,974 to 30,636. The contrast between the me-
tropolis and the north-western manufacturing dis-
tricts is creditable to the former, for the aggregate
of marriages happens to be nearly the same ; but
in the south, only 3,468 men and 5,989 women,
in the north 9,027 men and 15,981 women-sixty
per cent. of the total number married-testified
their assent in the primitive fashion.
The total number of births in each of the five
years has been as follows :-In 1848, 563,059 ; in
1849, 578,159-; in 1850, 593,422; in 1851, 615,865 ;
and in 1852, 623,990. Of the numlier last men-
tioned, 319,036 were males, and 304,954 females.
It is somewhat singular that the very considerable
increase in the number of births which took place
in the last year was most unequally distributed ;
and it will be seen, front the figures which follow,
that in the returns for one quarter there is actually
a,diminution

1851. 1852.
First quarter
Second ditto
Third ditto 150.594
Fourth ditto
In the London division, the return for the first
quarter has, in each year of the series, been the
largest; and in the colui try districts, the maximum
is always found to have been attained in one or
other of the two earlier quarters, but not very un-
frequently in the second. The number of illegiti-
mate births in 1852 was 42,491 ; and the proportion
to the aggregate—exactly the same as that of the
three preceding years—was that of 68 to 1,000, or
about one in 14.7. The increase under this head.
in 1851 was 491, and it may be observed that of
this addition, 335 are due to the first quarter, 88
to the second, and 77 to the fourth ; whiie in the
third quarter there is a diminution of nine. The
county of Norfolk appears to be, as in former years,
distinguished by the largest proportion of illegiti-
mate births, and it is, we believe, the only one in
which that proportion exceeds 10 per cent. In the
metropolitan districts it is not 4 per cent., and in
Lancashire but little above the general average, as
deduced from the returns of the kingdom at large.
The
beennuamsbfeorlloofwdse:allisn 18ine4a8e1,1 year of the series
41105,853 '
399,800 ; in 1849
in 1850, 368,936 ; in 1851, 395,174; and
in 1852, 407,138. It will be seen that the remark-
ably low mortality of 1850 was alone almost suffi-
cient to restore the average disturbed by the visita-
tion of Asiatic cholera in 1849—in other words, that
the disease, for the most part, carried off those
whose lives would probably have been terminated
before long by natural causes. The return for the
first quarter has been, in each year not marked by
any extraordinary calamity, very considerably the
largest ; and in 1848, 1850, and 1851, the return
for the third quarter was the Brical lest. In 1852,
however, a change took place, due apparently to
some cause which greatly increased the mortality
of the autumn quarter without similarly affecting
that which followed. We have not the same means
of accurately ascertainiug the ratio of mortality in
1852 as that which the Census of 1851 gave_ug for
the returns of that year ; but as the
by
9h564, it
in-
creased by 8,125, and the deaths i
would appear that—except so fez as
may bo kept up by immigration—the its
Population of
lli
England and Wales decreased in the course of the
latest year for which the
Annual ponli
Registrar-General has been Report of the
presented to Parlia-
menorning Chronicle.

A GEOLOGICAL DISCIOVEUT.—On Friday forenoon, an
itninen=e fossil tree was discovered in the Broomfield
Freestone Quarry, the property of Bailie John David.
sou, of Airdrie. At present there is only uncovered of
the tree about 36 fees, and from the thickness at which
it disappears in the adjacent rock, its entire length seems
ugurechotv!yered)t,,show adiameter
of o
exceed 50 teet.Thenrot lessots, thans six feetofarasth they are
base of it runs to fully two feet in diameter. On atthhreee
however, wel presume, must be
whole of the side uncovered there appears to have been
possibly
psevera nuts in the broken
oneoarbtrhaenctleieps;asTwheespel..ekedu
fruitfrag moefntths i
so fgrioacokt,
of whichthe early may have been-the
which it was found is fully
etofworriesatus.duTeihgewodeurpthhoodat
thraeveiloceted.tlNgeoe it. from the
feet. The crowds that
n 4 JOritiet, Arai/.