The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-06 00:00:00

HEALTH OF LONDON DURING THE

WEEK.

( From the Report of the Registrar-General.)
Nine hundred and forty-nine deaths were registered
in L.ndon in the week that ended on Saturday, Feb. 2.
In the corresponding week of last year the mortality
was 1,604. The difference is 655. The average cor•
rected number of deaths, derived from the mean mor-
tality for the ten corresp mding weeks in the preceding
ten years, is 1,279 ; and this number compared with this
week's return shows a decrease in the latter of 330
deaths. The state of the public health may, therefore,
be considered as remarkably good.
The mean air temperature for the two preceding week'
was 38.7 and 44.5; for last week it declined to 33.5
deg. ; in the same week last year, when the weather
was considerably colder, the mortality was nearly 70
per cent. more, the mean temperature then descending
as low as 29.3 deg.
this return includes 476 deaths of males and 473 of
females, and gives a total number of 777 less than the
births : 433 were children and young persons ; 146 were
of the age 20-40 ; 160 of the age 40-60 ; 175 of the
age 60-80 ; and 27 at the age of SO years and upwards.
Deaths arising from zymotic diseases, of which small-
pox, measles, scarlatina, hooping-cough, diarrhcea, and
fevers form the principal heads, numbered 228. Typhus
shows a tendency to increase, and was fatal to 69 per-
sons. The registrar of the Islington west sub-district
states :—" Nine more deaths from typhus have been
registered as occurring, in the London Fever Hospital.' Fever is also stated to be prevalent in the Whitechapel
workhouse, situated in the Mile-end New Town sub-
district. Bronchitis' which was fatal in 112 cases, fell
to 93. Pneumonia declined from 69 to 56. Pbthisis
(or consumption) carried off 131 persons ; of this num-
ber 111 were between the ages of 15 and 60. Apoplexy
and paralysis are returned in 33 cases, and diseases of
the heart and blood vessels in 38 cases. Two death,*
are registered as haying occurred from cholera. A•
female, aged 22 years, " cholera biliosa (24 hours),
and a girl, aged 9 weeks, f`cholera infantum."
Last week the births of 880 boys and 846 girls, in all
1726 children, were registered in London. In the ton
corresponding weeks of the years 1846.55 the average
number was 1530.

A triple :birth (2 girls and 1 boy) is recorded ; the
mother is the wife of a journeyman baker, residing at
3, Nun-gate Cottages, Peckham.
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 29.776 in.
The mean air temperature for the week was 33.5 deg.,
being less by 11 deg. than in tho week, preceding, and
less by 4 deg. than the average ()Nits same week in 38
years. The air on the average was colder than in the
five previous weeks, the mean temperature having been
below the average every day excepting Sunday. The
entire range of temperature-was 18.4 deg. Tke mean
dew-point temperature was 29.4 deg., or 4.1 deg. lees
than the mean air temperature. The temperature of
the water in the River Thames fell from 44.0 deg. to
36.1 deg. The electrical state of the atmosphere was
positive throughout the week. The air for the greater
part of the week was compartively calm, with light
breezes from the south-west. Snow, hail, and occa-
sional showers of rain fell on Monday.

MORTALITY IN ' THE METROPOLIS,
NUMBER OF DEATHS FROM ALL CAUSES REGISTERED
IN THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, FEB. 2.
Zymotic Diseases
Diseases of Uncertain Seat
Tubercular Diseases
Diseases of the Brain, Nerves and Senses
Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels 33
Diseases of the Lungs and other Organs of
Respiration lB3
Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other Organs
of Digestion
Diseases of the Kidneys, &c.
Childbirth, Diseases of the Uterus, &c.
Diseases of the Joints, Bones, and Muscles
Diseases of the Skin, &c. 1
Malformations 4
Premature Birth and Debility 26
Atrophy 27
Old Age
Sudden 2
Violence, Privation' Cold, and Intemperance l5
Causes not specified 9
...---
DEATHS FROM ALL CAUSES 949
Population Deaths la corre- Deaths
Enumerated. spending week in the
1851. of 1855. Week'
West Districts
North Districts 490,396 ~ 344
Central Districts 393,256
East Districts 485,522
South Districts

Totals
Males
Females

1,604

476
' 473

OUR REPORT OF THE LATE GREAT
MEETING IN.• WESTMINSTER.
(Front the Morning Advertiser.)
There it nothing more common than for platform ora-
tors, as well as members of the House of Commons, to
endeavour to make the reporter the scapegoat for any
expressions they may have employed, which they after-
wards find it inconvenient to acknowledge. To escape
the unpleasant consequences to themselves, such persons
impugn the accuracy of the report, and thus, as far as in
them lies, do a serious injury to gentlemen whose position
depends on their character for correct reporting. This is
a very grave matter ; and as the practice is becoming
general for speakers to throw the blame unjustly on the
reporters, in order that they themselves may escape,
we think it high time that the editors of public journals
should throw the shield of their protection around those
gentlemen who, in the practice of their laborious profes-
sion, are thus sought to be made responsible for the errors,
indiscretions, or follies of those persons whose speeches
it is their ditty to report. One way in which this can be
done is to show, by proofs of the most conclusive kind,
as we now do, that the charge of inaccuracy preferred
against the reporter is without foundation. Another
mode of protecting reporters is by abstaining from the
publication of future reports of the speeches of such
Parties as have unjustly sought to transfer the responsi-
bility of what they have said from their own shoulders
to those of the gentlemen who had the misfortune to
report their orations. In the present case, in addition
to the letter of our own reporter published yesterday,
and to that of another reporter, which we subjoin,
we have had the most express assurances given
us of the accuracy of the allusion to Prince Albert,
by gentlemen of education who were on the plat-
form,
within two or three yards of the speaker. Tt if
also due to the gentleman whose report is impugned that
we should state, that there is not a more able reporter
in England. Besides, the very phrase which the speaker
says he used, namely, the- " but of a peasant," instead
of " the hu:band of a Queen," would have been a simple
absurdity ; inasmuch as there is no instance on record,
in this or any other country, in which treason has been
hatched in " the hut of a peasant." Treason always has a
more elevated birthplace. And, last of all, the deafening
plaudits, again and again reiterated, accompanied with
the whirling of hats in the air, which followed the
sentence showed that the vast assemblage not only
distinctly heard the words,'", the husband of a Queen,"
but felt, or at least believed, that there was a terrible •
significance in the allusion,—which would have been
pointless, and would have passed unnoticed, had the
language used been, as the speaker now says it was,
" the hut of a peasant." The following is the letter of
another Reporter who was present, not asked for but
volunteered by the writer :
THE LATE WESTMINSTER MEETING.
To the Editor of the Morning Advertiser.
SIR,—I observe, in your columns of Monday last, that
Mr. Richard Hart impugns the accuracy of your reporter's
rendering of his words, saying, hi a letter to you, that he
never used the words, " The throne of a prince and hus-
band of a queen." Now, sir, Mr. Hart, or any other
public speaker, should consider well before they attempt
to throw discredit on the ability of a reporter. They
should bear in mind that it is almost impossible for a
speaker, carried away by the enthusiasm of his subject
and the cheers of his auditory, Ao be.able to question the
accuracy of a reporter. They should further remember
that a reporter is an educated professional man, and
that the sole business of his life, at public meetings, is
to take down whatever the speakers say, if he is so
ordered. This being the case, sir, I apprelead that
there will be little difficulty in understanding that, to
your reporter, all the cheering in the world-:-the most-
frantic shouts—the most ear-splitting groans and hisses,
are, when at his table, only so much " leather and
prunella." However, to set Mr. Hart's mind and Mr.
Hart's friend's minds at rest, as to the way in which
he did utter the disputed sentence, I will, with your
permission, transfer it (as I took it at the moment it .
was uttered) from my note-book to your columns.
After alluding to the execution of Charles, and im-
mediately following the sentence concluding with the ,
word " ancestors," come these words :
"I will not shrink here from• calling crime crime, whe-
ther that crime be committed from the throne of a
Prince, or by the husband of a Queen ; and where that
crime is proved, and the verdict given, sentence and
execution
shall follow." (The allusion was received with
tremendous cheering and waving of hats in all parts of
the large and crowded hall.) ,
The sentence "hut of a peasant" was never used at all •
by Mr. Hart at that meeting, and I can credit my own •
note-book better than any man's memory.
I have the honour to be, sir,
Your most obedient servant,
A. PROFESSIONAL SHORTHAND WRITER.
. Feb. 5, 1856.

Loss OF THE AMERICAN BRIG WEBSTER—SOUTR.
AMPTON, Feb. s.—The Peninsular and Oriental Com-
pany's steamer Sultan, which arrived at this
port yes•
terday morning with the Peninsular mails, brings intel-
ligence of the total loss of the American brig Webster.
This vessel, which belonged to Bucksport, United
States, Captain Heath, sailed from Cadiz on the 24th
ult. with a cargo of salt for Rio Grande. On the 20th,
at half-past three p.m., Cape Spartel bearing E.N.N.,
by aocnunt, 120 miles, she ran foul of a piece of timber,
about 22 inches square, striking endways, which split
the stem and pressed in the lower part of the port;
causing the brig to leak so much that the crew, although
working both pumps, were unable to free her. On tho
the following day, at one a.m., thr crew took the boats,
and at four o'clock the brig went down. The captain
and his men (nine in all), after 40 hours' of severe ex-
posure in the open boats, arrived at Gibraltar, haying
loot every particle of they olotlan.