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

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BIRTHS, DEATHS, AND .3IA PRIGCLES.

We published on Monday- an abstract of the
Report of the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths,
and Marriages, for the yoar 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 preceding years are as
,
follows:

Established Chnreh. Otherwise. Total.
1848 121,469 16,761 138,230
1849 • 123,182 18,701 141,883
1850 130,953 21,785 152,738
1851 130,958 23,248 154,206
1852 133,882 - 2-4,900 158,782
It will be observed that, of the whole increase in
amounting to 4,576, very nearly
column. Between 1850 and 1851, these had scarcely
atydeu pear,
to marriages included in the first
sth,oeoolas
re
increased at all-the whole difference between
the aggregates of the two years being accounted
for in the second column ; and this result may,
perhaps, be taken as some evidence of the in-
creasingwhich the Church possesses on
the affections of the people.
•
The number of
. hold
Roman Catholic marriages has risen from 3,65
8-
• its total in the first year of the series-to 7,459
and that of marriages in registered places of wor-
ship belonging to other Christian denominations,
from 8,060 to 10,017. The returns from Quakers
and Jews, which are separately entered, are, of
course, small, but the latter show a tendency
to increase. The actual numbers have been-
Quaker marriages, 67, 53, 69, 65, 57 ; and Jewish,
186, 229, 260, and 247. The number of mar-
riages performed in the Superintendent-Regis-
trar's office rose from 4,920 in 1848 to 6,813 in
1851, and to
in which these are found in various districts are
7,100 in 1852 ; and the proportions
still exceedingly different. We last year called
attention to the very extraordinary fact, that
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 Wales. 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 &population -a less than 600,000, the
corresponding total was 1,911. A slight change
has since taken place, t lie 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, and it is almost equally
surprising to find that iu some other parts of the
country-as Cheshire, for example, where it might
have been anticipated that the services of the Su-
perintendent-Registrar would have been not unac-
ceptable to a considerable portion of the population
-marriages are, with hardly an 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 duninishesrapidly, end-
ing with "one" between 75 and 80, and " one"
still more antiquated bride, who ranks as "80 and
upwards." The 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 alinost half as large
again as the return for the first: There are, how-
ever, the same local peculiarities which have been
observed in former re-ports. 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 gcmeral rule is found in the returns
"from the northern comities ; but from comparison
with previous reports, it appears to have been an
accidental irregularity. 'Tie 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 in.iication of the advance of education. In
1848, 43,166 men, and 62,771 women, out of
'138,230 who were married, signed with marks ;
end 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
aWI marks has risen during the same period from
32,974 to 36,636. 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 uuniber of births iu 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 number 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 !nest unequally distributed ;
and it will be seen, from the figures which follow,
that in the returns for one quarter there is actually
a diminution :-

1851. 1852.
. .
First quarter ...... 157,286
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 the country 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 ; while 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 number of deaths in each year of the series
has been as follows :—ln 1848
40 , 399,800.; in. 1849,
i:1,885523,
;40in7,1183580., 316t84'w9i8161 .einseelnBsthat39thsea74 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,
livesisease would probab
,forthemost
whose lypah artv, carried
off those
terminatted
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 smallest. 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 ascertaining the ratio of mortality in
1852 as that which the Census of 1851
gave us for
the . returns of that year ; but as the births in.-
creased by 8,125, and the deaths by 11,964, it
far as its numbers
, would appear that—except s
Eaglaudatft"Vales decrealniu e
or 0
the
may be 1:::pt up by iimmigra.tio(lini--nthe
latest year for which the atlheßic)oopit:rusltactolinthcer
Ijuleequits.Llavoit:ini:;;;;lol;aro-intl.:zil presented to Parlia-

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son,
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Airdrie.feet.and
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thethickness is
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t at which
it disappears in the adjacent rook, its entire length seems
greatly to exceed .50 feet, The roots, so far as they are
uncovered, show a diameter of not less than s-;'s feet •, the
base of it runs to fully two feet in diameter. On the
whole of the side uncovered there appears to have been
l;ramay
no branches. These,
near the top, as we picked up several
fruifragmentstoftii i
so fgrioacnkt,
cs;, htihche
which it was found is fullyea3ri
have flocked to .see it front. the townfee nuts in the broken
have been the
forests. The depth at
—Nora British Af ail.
are immense.anTahene
neighbourhoodsrhtohodat