The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—Faithful to his trust, the Registrar-Ge-
neral presents us with his Quarterly Account of
the actual condition of the people of this kingdom.
There is no gainsaying his authority or quarrelling
with his statistics. When the figures are once given
their import is notorious. If more people die or
fewer people are married than usual, there is some-
thing wrong; if the death rate is low and the mar-
riage rate high, we must be doing well. There may
be local exceptions to the rule, but in the main the
conclusion is, in the present instance, not unfavour-
able. In the last quarter brought to account the
marriages were numerous, and though not quite so
numerous as in the corresponding period of the year
previous, they tended to maintain what has been an
unusually high rate for the last three years. The
deaths, on the other hand, show no increase, and it
is reasonably inferred that, except for the intense
cold of January, which swelled the mortality for
the month, there would, upon the whole quarter,
have been a n actual decline. indeed, the result
may be still more favourably represented, for,
though the death rate of the quarter expresses pre-
cisely the
average of the season according to csleu-
lation,rt is really below that of the last. three win-
ters. The actual number of deaths in England and
Wales for the'winter quarters of 1864, 1865, 1866,
and 1867 respectively were 142,977, 140,410,
138,233, 134,254, from which figures it would ap-
pear that the public health had been steadily im-
proving for the last three years. This conclusibn,
indeed, would probably be correct, except for the
epidemic of cholera in 1866, which, though it did
not affect the returns of the winter quarter, raised
the mortality of the whole twelve months. It will
be satisfactory to the public to learn that little or
no trace of this formidable malady has been visible
during the present year. In one part of Eng-
land only did it assume anything like an epi▪ de-
mic form. In Durham it carried off 35 persons,
but before the end of the quarter it had dis-
appeared, and in no other place was there
any alarm. The different districts of the kin•
g-
dom, however, show very different rates of mortality.
The Eastern Counties have been very healthy,
Yarmouth and Norwich especially so. The South
Eastern, too, show a good return, but the South
Midland are not so fortunate. In this class are
comprised the counties of Middlesex (excluding the
metropolis), Hertford, Buckingham, Oxford,North-
ampton, lluntingdon, Bedford, and Cambridge, so
that the University towns appear in the same divi-
sion, and the Registrar-General is puzzled at the
difference between them. Oxford has been healthy,
Cambridge unheali hy, and " it is very desirablo,"
says the Report, " that Cambridge should not be
deprived of the hygienic improvements on which
vigour as well as health depends." The Northern
and North-Western Counties make, as usual, a bad
return. Durham and Northumberland are " un-
healthier than ever they were," and yet the death
rate iu those parts was not so high as in Lancashire
and Cheshire. "We have a right," adds the Re-
gistrar-General, to expect that these great and
aspiring counties will no longer remain the un-
healthiest communities in the United Kingdom."
The thirteen great towns in the kingdom now re-
ceive a classification of their own. Special reports
are made of London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Man-
chester, Birmingham, Dublin, Leeds, Sheffield,
Edinburgh, Bristol, Newcastle, Salford, and Hull.
Of these, London, of course, is immeasurably the
most populous ; the others descend iu the order in
which we have placed thenr, from Liverpool with
its 492,000 inhabitants to Hull with its 106,000,

To understand the comparisons now instituted be-
tween these great centres of population the reader
must know that whereas the annual rate of mor-

tality in the whole kingdom was, for the winter

quarter, 26 per 1,000, it was 27 for the town, and
23 for the country districts generally. Now, in
London the rate was only 26.78, whereas in New-
castle it was 37.10. In Dublin it was 34.62 ; in
Manchester it was 33.81 •, in Glasgow and Liverpool
slightly less ; in Bristol, 25.50 ; in Birmingham,
25.35 ; and in Hull, only 25.23. It is quite
possible, therefore, for large towns to be not only
not more unhealthy than other places, but actually
less so. Birmingham, with its 340,000 inhabitants,
has a lower death rate than all England •, London,
with its 3,000,00'0, has a rate only a little higher.
The prevalent diseases of the quarter were whoop-
ing-cough, smallpox, and measles—mainly diseases
of children, but the returns from the sub-districts

attribute great fatality to the cutting north-east
winds in their effect upon the aged and infirm. The
cold, too, of January was very great, and the change
in the last week of the month singularly abrupt and
violent. From the Ist to the sth of the month the
frost wus severe ; from the 6th to the tenth the
daily temperature rose to an average excess of seven
degrees. On the 11th the frost returned,. and con-
tinued till the 22d, with au average deficiency in
the daily temperature of ten degrees. Then, once
more, on the morning of the 23d the weather changed
again, and with such extraordinary abruptness
that the thermometer rose 20 degrees in the 24
hours, and for five and thirty days the warmth
was such as had never been experienced at that
season since the year 1779. No wonder that

such weather should have proved trying to health.
We may infer from the marriage rate—which is
now returned, not for the winter quarter ending
with March, but for the autumn quarter ending with
December—that work must, upon the whole, have
been plentiful and wages good, though there are
indications of distress in various places. Ever
since the close of 1864 the general prosperity of
the country has been shown by a high marriage
rate maintained with unusual steadiness, but the
figures for 1866, though above the average, are
below those of 1865. The decline was seen in Lon-

don, where the number of marriages fell from 9,738
to 9,112—a result, no doubt, of the distress at
the East-end--in the West Midland Counties, in
the Northern, and in Yorkshire. But in the
manufacturing districts the improvement which had
followed on the revival of the cotton industry was
distinctly maintained. It happens uniformly that
the last quarter of the year, classed on these returns
as the autumn quarter, is that in which there are
most marriages. There is no exception to this rule,
and the difference is very great indeed. The quar-
ter least favourable to marriages is the winter quar-
ter, or that terminating on the 31st of March,
during which the marriages in all England are about
36,000. The two following quarters are tolerably
near each other with about 45,000 each, the spring
having rather an advantage over the summer. But
in the autumn quarter the numbers jump at once to
55,000 or 56,000, showing an increase of at least 50
per cent. over the totals of winter. Whatever may
be the explanation of this phenomenon, it is abso-
lutely invariable. The rate of the whole may be
high or low, but whether it be high or low, or
whether the marriages be many or few, it is quite
certain that in the last quarter of the year there will
be half as many again as there were in the first. In
all the statistics which are compiled in these reports
for our edification and guidance, there is no result
which is more constant or conspicuous than this.
THE 44 WESTMINSTER GAZETTE " ON JAMAICA,
IRELAND, AND BRITISH RULE. One of the
most profound, erudite, and constitutional charges
ever delivered by any judge in these kingdoms
was that lately addressed to the Grand Jury,
at the Central Criminal Court, by Lord Chief
Justice Cockburn, in the case of the Queen
against Colonel Nelson and Lieutenant Brand.
It is not our intention to enter into the question
of the guilt or innocence of these officers, or of
their superior, Governor Eyre ; but to confine
ourselves to what we consider of much higher im-
portance, namely, the constitutional law of these
realms, as laid down by the learned judge in his
very lucid and elaborate address. We are sure
that this charge has been universally read, and
therefore do not deem it necessary to go through
it in detail ; but there is one great and salutary
constitutional principle contained in it, namely,
"that the prerogative to proclaim martial law
does not belong to the Crown of England "—and
the enunciation of this principle by so high an
authority is, in our mind, of unspeakable advant-
age to the progress- of genuine liberty and the
cause of public order at the present time. We
know not what the intentions of the " Jamaica
Committee" are whether it is intended, to make
any further exertions to bring the above-named
officers to trial—or whether the committee will rest
satisfied with the public benefit they have already
conferred on her Majesty's subjects throughout the
world by vindicating the right of the meanest to
a fair hearing and to an impartial trial ; but of
this one fact we feel convinced that, after so clear
and solemn a statement of the law of these United
Kingdoms, neither the Government at home, the
Lord Lieutenant in Ireland, nor any of the Queen's
representatives abroad, will be likely so far to yield
to the influence of exaggerated fear, prejudice, or
caprice, as lightly to supersede the civil courts of
justice, and substitute in their stead crude, arbi-
trary, mock tribunals, which are not only declared,
but proved, by the Lord Chief Justice to be un-
constitutional and illegal. This is a great object
achieved by the public-spirited gentlemen com-
posing the Jamaica Committee, and we are satisfied
it will be appreciated by the inhabitants of Jamaica,
and hope it will have a salutary effect in restoring
public confidence among.them, as they may expect
a more impartial administration of the law for the
future. Nothing is more irritating,' either to an
individual or a nation, than to be made to feel that
the law is partially administered. In Jamaica, we
fear, justice has not always been administered in
an impartial manner, and in the government of
that unfortunate colony is to be traced too much
of the hateful spirit of faction and ascendancy.
England, we must reluctantly acknowledge, is
somewhat too fond of ruling by means of a mino-
rity, and for their exclusive interests •, but the
sooner she abandons this system, and wisely governs
the masses of her people by the influence of affec-
tion rather than fear, the better for her owl' in-
terests. England's partial system of government has
tbheaenn,iannadnsytiollthise,rmpoartre
of fullyher stexveampdloifimeidniionnls. Shereland
has now held sway in Ireland for seven hundred
years—e and
has dshurg noeineverpperamrtitotfedthtahteimmlrisehnpseeoppelreiotc(l3.
enjoy equal laws with. herself. She has never for
one day, out of the seven hundred years, given
them the advantage of the same rights, privileges,
and institutions, as she herself has enjoyed. Cen-
tury after century the Irish people have been asking
and petitioning for equal rights, laws, privileges,
and institutions, but their demands and their peti-
tions are rejected even to the present hour. The
Catholics of Ireland, during the last three hundred
years, to say nothing of the preceding four hun-
dred, have suffered more injustice at the hands of
Protestant England than any other human beings
of any creed or colour, have suffered at the hands
of any other Government on the face of the earth.
Every scholar in England knows what Ireland has
been made to suffer ; every lawyer knows it ; every
member of Parliament knows it • every man,
woman, and child of Irish birth and blood feels it ;
and a vet large number of Englishmen, Protestant
as well as Catholic, acknowledges it with pain and
humiliation ; and yet England, as a nation, boastful
as she is of her love of justice, and affecting sym-
pathy with the oppressed of .every foreign clime,
has had none to bestow on Ireland, her next-door
neighbour, and, may we not say, her miscalled
sister ! Perhaps some of our readers will object,
" this is a severe charge, a sweeping accusation
can it be true ?" and, if true, is it wise to bring it
at the present moment? In our opinion, the case
as against Ireland, since the Fenian outbreak at
least, has been too exclusively dwelt on ; it is time
now to lay Ireland's case fairly and fully before the
English public. Lest any should doubt the perfect
truth of the historic fact of England's misrule in
Ireland, we shall not ask them to rely on our
own authority; for some might imagine that,
as Catholics, we have an undue leaning in favour
of Catholic Ireland, but we will quote for them
the recently-spoken words of an eminent Pro-
testant judge, who cannot be suspected of any bias
in that direction. here are the words of Lord Chief
Justice Cockburn in reference to the mode in
which England has governed Ireland. Speaking
of Ireland, in the charge already referred to, he
calls her " the sister island, where, unhappily,
generations of misrule and political and religious
tyranny and oppression had existed." Here is a
description of the worst species of government
that the wickedness of man could establish
andtablishfo
torturing a neople—namely, “ ptic
reli-
gious tyranny and oppression," and this tyranny
and oppression continued for " generations !"
Political tyranny and oppression are bad enough ;
religious tyranny and oppression are still worse.
But the combination of both, which formed
the ground-work of English rule, or, to use the
learned judge's more correct expression, of Eng-
land's " misrule" in Ireland, led to the infliction
of every species of refined cruelty and torture that
tyranny, bigotry, and intolerance could suggest.
The English press has not dwelt on these re-
markable words of the Lord Chief Justice as
we think it ought to have done. If such a state-
ment had been made by any high judicial func-
tionary respecting any foreign Catholic country,
we should have leaden without number in the

English Protestant press dwelling on the griev-
ances of the people under such " misrule, and
calling on the Garibaldis, the Mazzinis, the Kos-
suths, et hoc genus omne, to draw their swords and
free their countrymen from such tyranny and in-
justice. But, perhaps, we shall be told that this
was the state of Ireland in former days ; but that
there is now no distinction between Catholics and
Protestants, and no difference in .the mode in
which justice is measured out to Catholic and Pro-
testant in Ireland at the present time. We wish
this were time, but, unfortunately, it is far from be-
ing so. The Catholics are still too often legislated
for in the old spirit of ascendancy, and are to this
very day marked out as the victims of the law.
The minority in Ireland, that is, the Protestant
part of the population, still possesses and exer-
cises the power of " misrule ' in that Catholic
country. From that minority are selected the
overwhelming body of Lord-Lieutenants and
Deputy-Lieutenants of counties, and nine-tenths
of tne magistracy of that kingdom •, and hence the
power of governing the majority of the people, who
are Catholic, is reposed by the British Govern-
ment in the hands of the minority, too often
represented by the bigotry and inhumanity of
the blood-stained Society of Orangeism. Chief
Justice Cockburn has borne testimony to the
former system of misrule in Ireland. We shall
now quote the authority of another judge to prove
the present system of injustice and oppression prac-
tised by those in power upon the Catholics, and
which may be taken as a fair sample of the animus
that guides the ascendancy party in their " mis-
rule" of Ireland. As we have said, the blood-
stained Orange Society too often represents the
feelings of the ascendancy party in that coun-
try ; and the sympathy between Orangeism and
those in magisterial authority has been clearly
by Mr. Justice Keogh, at the Tyrone Assizes, so
lately as within the month. At those Assizes that

learned judge felt it his duty' to reprobate, in
strong language, the conduct of certain magistrates
of that county who, in a case of riot that came be-
fore their bench, in which Catholics and Protestants
had been engaged, and where the Protestants were
the firstto outrage the others by playing party tunes
and using insulting expressions--such as to ll—
with the Pope, &c.—opposite the very doors of
the Catholics; yet the magiiitrates, on the occasion
of six of each party being identified by the con-
stabulary and summoned before them, dismissed
the cases of five of the Protestant rioters, who were
the aggressors, and sent the six Catholics, who
were acting on the defensive, before his lordship
for trial ! Mr. Justice Keogh sentenced the six
Catholics to severe punishment, and expressed his
regret that the Orangemen—those who really
caused the riot—had been screened by the magis-
trates, and he thereby prevented from adminis-
tering the law impartially and punishing them
also. So that here we have Justice Keogh proving
from the judicial bench, in 1867, that the same sys-
tem of " Orange misrule" is still kept up in Ireland
as Chief Justice Cockburn describes at the close of

the last century—the principle of misgovernment
is the same, the difference is only in degree. There
is nothing so well calculated to irritate the public
mind, and produce wide-spread dissatisfaction
and disorder throughout any country, as the main-
taining of some unequal laws and a one-sided mode
of administering others. Both these vicious sys-
tems are perpetuated in Ireland. The Irish Catho-
lics, without exception, are insulted and injured by
the laws still in force in their country. These un-
just laws affect the Catholic aristocracy, the
Catholic archbishops, bishops, deans, clergy, and
people, as we shall demonstrate before we have
done with this subject. It is too important to
be dismissed with a single article, and, therefore,
we intend to return to it again.

THE NORTH BRITISH ENGINE-DRIVERS•

At a meeting of the engine-drivers on the Cale-
donian, Glasgow, and South-Western, and North
British Railways, principally the latter, held in
Glasgow, on Saturday evening last, it was resolved
to present a series of resolutions to the directors of
the North British Company to the following
effect :

" That a period of ten hours be called a clay, the
time after that to be reckoned by the hour ; that
the wages of drivers commence at ss. per day for
a pilot driver, 6s. per day for a goods driver, and
after the first 12 months 6s. 6d., and that passenger
drivers get 7s. per day ; that the wages of firemen
commence at 3s. per day. for a pilot fireman, 3s. 6d•
for a goods fireman, and 4s. for a passenger fire-
man, and that firemen shall be promoted to be
drivers in rotation according to seniority whenever
a vacancy occurs; that six hours be a shed day,
and any man requiring to run on a shed day to
ordinary day's work ; that catch cngino driver
be paid at the rate of time and a quarter for all
fireman when required to come on duty shall not
be paid less than one day's pay, and shall have
nine hours off duty before required to come on duty
again, or to be paid time and quarter for the time
he is on duty ; that when an engine is repairing the
driver and fireman shall be supplied with anot her,
or get running wages ; that any driver or fireman
punished for any mistake or error of judgment
shall have a right to appeal to the Board, shall be
paid his full pay till a final decision is given, and
shall if he wishes it be accompanied to the Board
by a deputation of his fellow-workmen ; that 110
engine-driver shall be punished for being
a member
of the Engine-drivers' and Firemen's United So-
ciety ; that no inspector shall interfere with a driver
or fireman while on duty, but shall simply report to
the superintendent ; that all Sunday work shall be
paid time and half, and when any driver or fireman
has to be away from home at night he shall be
allowed 2s. 6d. per night, and when from home ova
Sunday he shall have 4s. per day, and shall have
refreshments when going any great distance from
home special ; that 100 miles be a day's work for
goods and mineral, and 130 miles for passenger
trains."
A deputation was appointed to lay these resolu-
tions before the directors, and, while empowered t
fire-
give way
twoadynovnerssuhcihpsmaantdtetrhseaisatehrefepreronmceootfioinpe
promotion of
ctorsi
was instructed to insist on such points as wages and
time.