The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-05 00:00:00

(From the Daily News.)

Once in three months there issues from Somerset-
house a document, very official in form, very full of
figures, and written with a very complete contempt for
style, but whichis nevertheless of great interest. The
editor of this document is Mr. Farr, the contributors
the various registrars, and the title the " Quarterly Re-
turn of Births, Marriages, and Deaths." It gives, in
less than 50 pages, a return from every portion of Eng-
land and Wales : affording exact knowledge of all the
weddings that take place, telling the precise number of
new mortals who make their appearance, to fill up the
gaps created by the doings of Death, and chronicling
also the ravages of the Great Destroyer himself. The
figures in these returns, indeed, afford a veracious mus-
ter roll of the nation—indicating where vacancies have
been made by excessive mortality, where population
has become more dense by excess of births, and
where prosperity and hope are indicated by the
abundance of weddings. Yesterday, the document, tell-
ing all these particulars of the first quarter of the present
tion.yea year waslt issued,seeme
that
and t h iet l
agsitves
fifteen muchmcounrtihs oiu sh ianvfeo rvailiat:
nessed more marriages than were ever beforelBs2
mA
might be
appears that
to take place in a similar period in England,i,t
dthe
tGreathe GreatEx blivbeil
delingyeYaer,a:e
quarter is the favourite
that in the three
namedes
country the Christmas .
ninety-four thousand
ittinsrimucltaeyhllifor matrimonial alliances
months after last harvesltvhaabtO
1 i ions of' flounces, rib-
-lopes, and fears went to
bone, smiles,
wereiles jroakteisfiefldu.
tterin s
make
.up the complement ofgtiiat vast. host of weddings
no arithmetic can tell, but one thing is at least proved
b. y the. fact of so many p
.spv.e agreeing to join their lot
in life for better or tv
rineee,:tillaich is that the country and
indication
tr
teelli;eteap;belfoi
osprhl entaohraeitnndsoiacwtai
Yfitly Prosperous. The weddings
fact, if they show nothing
with growth of general s more unerring than this—that
prosperity weddings grow—with

~iclov/pJr~

dlecline of general prosperity weddings dean ae. Young
a dies who are fond of saying they " know nct, thing **at
politics, and don't care for them," would pa ssiblyleel a
little more interest in such matters if the, v knew how
political struggles and conclusions,—by influencing the
weal of the mass of the people,—influence i mtnediately
those "interesting events" for which every fe male heart
has at least some feeling. Free trade has rip ened many
thousands of courtships into matrimony that, under the
old system, would never have reached so happy a climax.
Protection, scanty employment, dear food, and celibacy
ran together as certainly as free trade, plenty of work,
cheap food, and weddings are now seen to be linked in
happy combination. On this subject the precise array
of figures becomes interesting.:—

" 94,416 persons were married in the last quszter of the
year 1852, the three 'months after harvest, the Christmas
quarter, in which, according to the customs cif England,
the greatest number of weddings are celebrated. This
number, however, exceeds the numbers in the correspond.
ing quarter of any previous year; and if the whole year is
taken, it shows a proportional 'exces4. There were 158,439
marriages in the year 1852, 153,740 in 1851, and, only ten
years ago, 118.825 in the year 1842. The marriages in the
five years 183842 were 605,219, in the five years 1848.52
they were 745,030. The marriages in England from 1843
to 1852 were at such a rate that 1 in 60 people married,
annually ; the proportion in 1852 was 1 in 57 ; while in
the last quarter of the year 1852 it was lin 48. The in-
crease is greatest in London, where 7,101 marriages took
place in the last quarter of 1852."

Seven thousand one hundred and one marr►ages is
three months in one city is indeed a startling fact, that
goes far towards solving the riddle often propounded in
London —" Where do all the people come from to oc-
cupy the thousands of new houses ? ' The registrar's next
summary of numbers gives further information bearing
on the same point. It refers to the consequences of
matrimony.

"161,598 births were registered in the quarter ending
March 31, 1853. The number is slightly less than the
number registered in the corresponding quarter of the year r.
1852, but in excess of the number registered in the winters?
of any previous years. The greatest number of births is
registered generally in the sprthg, but in 1852 it happened
exceptionally that the births in the winter exceeded the
births in the spring quarter. The annual proportion of
births since 1843 has been 1 in 30; in the winter quarter
the average rate is 1 in 29 ; in the winter quarter of the
present year it has been 1 in 28."
The more the merrier. Whilst we have plenty of pro-
fitable employment for the people, and a good supply of
food, and a great outpouring of emigrants, this abundant
crop of new human arrivals need snake no heart sad.
The total addition to the population during -the winter
quarter was 43,357—the births being 161,593 to 118,241
deaths. The mortality was unusually severe ; in conse-
quence, apparently, of the very cold and wet treather we
have suffered. But for this the addition to our total
numbers would (it is estimated) have been about 12,000
greater. " Emigration," says the report, " still rolls
on, and in the winter 57,729 persons left the ports of
the United Kingdom at which there are Government
they be
p
emigration agents.' TheLgirveeartpebeullk,
aonfd vtheseery manyseekers ofof
new homes sailed from
May
yre
thin
them were, u
of ctohuersNe.enwatli
vveosrlodf Ireland.aswenow M
Old !

( From the Morning Advertiser. )
The manner in which Lord Palmerston has received
the deputation which has just waited on his Lordship,
respecting the City Terminus and the improvements
connected with it, is such as to afford additional encour-
agement to those who are engaged in this most impor-
tant undertaking, and whose project we hope to see re-
alised with all possible expedition.
The Home Secretary has stated that, from personal
feeling, as well as from a sense of official duty, he shall
be happy to do all in his power to promote the great
work, the claims of which have been urged on his atten-
tion, and which he has pronounced to be worthy of the
support of Government. When, therefore, the whole
undertaking, in its several branches, shall await the de-
cision of the different departments to which it will be
referred—the railway at the Board of the Trade, the pro-
posed street improvements at the Office of Works—it
may be confidently expected that in each of these de-
partments there will be that degree of favourable atten-
tion which will result in accordance with the wishes o
the promoters.
The great project under consideration is not one of
merely local interest, or one the prosperity of which is
to be desired simply for the sake of advancing the inter-
ests of a particular company. The plan embraces an
object of national interest, which, when it is realised,
will tend most materially to the comfort of the inhabi-
tants of London, and to the prosperity of our commer-
cial and industrial interests, to a greater extent than is,
perhaps, at present apprehended.
As was observed by Mr. Raikes Currie, in his ad-
dress to the Home Secretary, by the plan proposed
10,000 persons will be daily conveyed by this great iron
highway, composed of four double lines, to stations in
Farringdon-street. Passengers, instead of losing a deal
of time in travelling from the London termini, on the
north side of the town, to the centre of London, will be
cheaply and expeditiously conveyed by rail, in a well-
lighted and well ventilated subway, to within a walking
distance of their places of destination. Every one who
is free from prejudice, and from the influence of some
opposing interests, so that he can form an honest and
independent judgment on this great question, must per-
ceive that the Central Terminus will supply a great
want in the railway system. and must earnestly depre-
cate any opposition or indifference which may tend to
deprive the community of the advantages which are now
placed within their reach.
If it had been necessary, as we hope it will now be un-
necessary, after the manner in which Lord Palmerston
has pronounced on the subject, it would have been very
easy for the company to have obtained the popular sup-
port to their measure in the form of memorials, or peti-
tions signed by the multitudes on whom this popular
scheme, when realised, will confer the greatest advan-
t iges.

We refer particularly to the advantage which will be
conferred on thousands of persons who are now obliged
to live shut up in the central parts of the metropolis,
owing to the time which would be consumed in going to
and fro from the distant railway termini, and the incon-
venient expense of even a short journey along any of the
lines. These imp(ditr ants to the enjoyment of fresh air
from day to day will be removed by the carrying out of
Mr. Pearson's plan, which will give the inhabitants the
benefit of cheap, frequent, and punctual trains, which
the daily travelling of such masses of the migratory po-
pulation entitle them to expect.
It has always been held out as an inducement to the
support of the plan under consideration, that " it will
extend to thousands of small shopkeepers, clerks, me-
chanics, artisans, porters, and others employed in the
city, the opportunity of occupying comfortable dwellings
in healthful situations, for less money than they now
pay, in pestilent situations, for wretched rooms, unfit for
human habitation." We are glad to observe that this
feature of the design is constantly kept in view, and that
it was brought under the notice of Lord Palmerston by
Mr. Currie, in the recent interview with his lordship.
For this reason it is that the proposed work, apart
from the interest it has as a great commercial specula-
tion, assumes the high character of a great instrument,
one of the greatest in the work of sanitary reform, and
is regarded also as a valuable contribution to the good
cause of the moral elevation of society. Therefore is it
that " philanthropists and sanitary reformers, clergymen
and medical men, and laymen who take a deep interest
in these subjects," have so promptly come forward to
second this scheme, and desire its success, as one most
important means of aiding their efforts to advance the
best interests of their fellow-men.

The subject becomes very important in relation to the
sanitary state of London, as it will admit of an arrange-
ment which is growing every day increasingly urgent in
connection with the interment of the dead, and which
has not escaped the attenti©n of those by whom the
comprehensive arrangements of this well-concocted plan
have been made.

. Among those who composed the late deputation to
the Home Secretary we observe there were representa-
t tives from some of the leading commercial houses in the
. City, and whose motives for the support of the under-
, taking are founded on facts of a most interesting and
gratifying character. We refer to the statements of Mr.
Lowry, Mr. Leaf, and other gentlemen, relative to the
necessity which they feel for the adoption of some means
of giving relief to the crowded thoroughfares in the
central parts of London.
The former gentleman observed that by the Free-
trade measures the manufactures of foreign countries
in cottons, linens, and woollens are admitted into this
country, the immediate consequence of which has been
largely to increase the general mercantile business of
the City, where the productions of all foreign nations
are brought into immediate competition with the pro-
ductions of this country. The present state of the
streets is found to be utterly inadequate to the require-
ikinwTiaettnphhyeui
rsossot, ha
titi othersniedr
a,r towns.astboltat
eoli
opportunities
pct g r e a t
require-
ments of the extended commerce of the City which, as
far as the higher class of the textile fahricsitre concerned,
supported by
is the market not only of England but of the world.
the present pro-
Mr. Leaf states that the crowded state of the streets
a theirdßa
po Both he
conviction
these
to
meet
gentlemen,e e tthattthis
is
growing
forms a serious obstruction to business, and increases
the difficulty which the London people feel in competing
e the City warehousemen and shop-
keepers of transacting their business
venience,uarters, we find that the arguments
project
seeare cumulative, and it
with success.
tiso the Govefrnment in so able a manner
that
ni no
wiwe favoursenotfe
presented
as to secure the promise o
affords us great satisfaction to
support which was
that they have been
wanted to crown the undertaking •
success.
F with
F

TalipTeFrUs Lo
nDpso.sksTens; ponf T u
property)esd ay went
ta
tion at namedthe
Swan
Steelß
Inn, Bolsover, where he had a quantity of drink, and
on this occasion, as he had done several times before,
refused to go home. He was, therefore, left asleep in a
chair. There was a fire in the room, which had a guard
before it two or three feet high. On the landlordfcoming
down stairs about four o'clock in the morning, he was
horror-struck to see the poor fellow leaning over the bar
and burning. All his clothes which the fire could reach
were destroyed, and a hole, which exposed the intestines,
had also been burnt in his side next to the grate. The
family were not disturbed in the slightest manner during
the night, and the unfortunate man was quite dead when
discovered.

FRIGHTFUL ACCIDENT.—A shocking fatality occurred
at Salford. on Tee3day. A boy was riding upon a cart
containing number of heavy barrels of ale, and one of
these slipping, fell to the ground, taking with it the un-
fortunate lad, and a second falling immediately after
caught his head, before he could rise,s and crushed him
to death on the spot. The driver of the cart, who was
in a state of intoxication behind the vehicle, has been
committed for trial on a charge of manslaughter, as had
he been at his horse's bead guiding it, the 4cciderit would
not have happened.