The Sun.
London, England, 1853-08-08 00:00:00

BIRTHS.

The births fluctuate less than either the marriages or
the deaths, and in the three quarters ending June 185_4.
52-53, the numbers were 159,138, 159,136, and 158,78,
or nearly the same in amount, but considerably above
1
the average of preceding years. The births, on
of 3.428
ave-
rage
of 10 spring quarters, were at the rate
per cent. ; in the last quarter ending June 30 the rate
was 3.507 on the population.
INCREASEof
OF POPULATION.
As the births
158,718 children and the deaths of
107,861 persons of all ages were registered in_ the quar-
ter, a balance of 50,857 remains in favour of the popu-
lation. The excess of births over deaths is less by
eight or twelve thousands than the excess in the cor-
responding quarters of the three previous years ;
chiefly owing to the high rate of mortalii;y in 1853.
115,959 emigrants sailed from the ports of the United
Kingdom at which there are Government emi-
gration agents ; 78,205 to the United States, 20,107
to British North America, 17,152 to the Australian
Colonies, and 495 to other places. 7,884 of the emi-
grants sailed from Glasgow and Greenock, 16,993 from
Irish ports, 74,646 (including many Irish) from Liver-
pool, 2,095 from Plymouth, 3,722 from Southampton,
and 10,619 from London. The emigration from the
United Kingdom has been at the rate of 8,920 a-week,
equal to the number of inhabitants in a majority of the
368 municipal boroughs of Great Britain. In Scotland
and Ireland the births and deaths of the population are
left unregistered, so that it is impossible to determine
the rate of natural increase in the United Kingdom ; but
at the rate prevailing in England, which it cannot ex-
ceed, the excess of births over deaths would be 79,820,
or less by 36,139 than the 115,959 emigrants.
The price of provisions during the quarter was consi-
derably higher than the ruling prices in the correspond-
ing months of the year 1852 ; wheat was sold on an
average at 445. 6d. a quarter ; beef, by the carcase, in
London, at -lid. per pound ; mutton, per pound ;
potatoes (York regents) at 1275. 6d. per ton. The price
of wheat was 10 per cent., beef 22 per cent., mutton 31
per cent., potatoes 31 per cent. higher in April, May,
June, 1853, than in the corresponding months of 1852.
It is evident that the price of wheat bears no longer any
constant relation to the price of the other chief articles
of food consumed by the rich or the poor ; and it must
be considered a fortunate circumstance that the price of
bread is not now likely to fluctuate so largely as the
prices of the more perishable articles with which the
markets of England are supplied from a comparatively
limited area.

STATE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH.
107,861 deaths were registered in the three months of
April, May, and June. This number is the highest
that has ever been registered before in the correspond-
ing season, and exceeds by 7,048 the deaths in the
spring quarter of 1852. The rate of mortality in
England is the highest in the winter (2.467 per cent.),
lowest in the summer quarter (2.129 per cent.), while the
mortality of the spring quarter (2.223) holds an inter
mediate rank, near the average of the year. This
average is exceeded by the present return, which shows
a morality at the rate of 2.383 per cent. per annum,
higher than the rate in the corresponding quarter of
every year, 1843-52, except the spring quarter of 1847,
when the population was infested by scurvy and its at-
tendant diseases after the great failure of the potato
crop in 1846. The rate of mortality was then 2.506 ;
in the autumn influenza broke out, and cholera followed
on its footsteps in 1848 and 1840.
The mortality of the quarter was above the average
both in the town and in the country districts ; the
annual rate of mortality was 2.606 in 117 districts,
comprising the chief towns, and 2.196 per cent in 503
districts, extending over the rest of the kingdom.

The population of England is, there is reason to be-
lieve, collectively healthier than any equal amount of
population in any other kingdom ; but the rapid increase
in the proportion of the town population—in which the
mortality is 27 per cent. higher than it is in the country,
and the sickness, the suffering, the debility, the physical
degeneracy of race are in equal excess—makes this ques-
tion of the health of towns and the fertilisation of the
surrounding fields one of the great questions of the day
demanding immediate solution. It is difficult for the
imagination to conceive all the beneficent effects that
would flow from the possible diminution of the mortality
which the subjoined figures express in town and in
country throughout the changing seasons of the year :