The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-18 00:00:00

The Public Health.

(From the Registrar-General's Weekly Return.)
The following is the weekly return of the Regis-
trar-General of births and deaths in London and in
12 other large towns of the United Kingdom :

" General Register-office, Somerset-house, Jan. 14.
In the week that ended on Saturday, Jan. 12, the
births registered in London and 12 other large
towns of the United Kingdom were 4,519 ; the

deaths registered, 3,843. The annual rate of mor-
tality was 32 per 1,000 persons living.
In London the births of 1,229 boys and 1,153
girls, in all 2,382 children, were registered in the
week. In the corresponding weeks of ten years
1857-66 the average number, corrected for increase
of population, was 2,086.
The deaths registered in London during the week
were 1,891. It was the second week of the year,
and the average number of deaths for that week is,
with a correction for increase of population, 1,T20.
The deaths exceeded the average by 171. The ex-
cess is due to the cold weather.

South-west winds prevailed during the last two
weeks of the year, with variable intensity,
.and the
temperature was unusually mild ; a calm set in, and
fogs spread over the whole face of the country for
three or four days ; then, on New Year's-day, the
north wind sprang up after a calm, and on the fol-
lowing days mingled with the west, south, and east

winds ; ten inches of snow fell on Wednesday, Jan
2, and intense cold brought the temperature of the
air down at night within a few degrees of zero at
Greenwich, and lower elsewhere at the end of the
week. The slow moving temperature of the Thames
fell in six days from 43 to 35 deg. in the day, and
from 41 to 31 deg. at night ; so that on Jan. 5 its
waters were below the freezing point, and there re-
mained until Jan. 7, after which they gradually rose
to 36 deg. on last Saturday.
The effects of the cold are now visible in the re-
turns, for, instead of 1,436 and 1,437 deaths, as in
the two preceding weeks, there appear on the regis-
ters of last week 1,891 deaths. The change of tem-
perature has killed about 455 people London. Few
were directly frozen to death ; the majority having
vital force enough to struggle against the freezing
cold, but not enough to prevent them from succumb-
ing under bronchitis and other affections. The mor-
tality varied with the powers of resistance, which is
greatest about the age of puberty, and least in old
age, when the lamp of life is flickering. Thus the
deaths above those in the last week of 1866 were 48
at the ages under 20 ; and 46 at the age 20-40, 113
at 40-60, 204 at 60-80, and 44 at the age of 80 and
upwards, making in all 455.
In such weather to give fire, food, and clothing is
to give life.
The daughter of a tailor, aged 9, died on Jan. 9
at 7, Charlotte-place, Mile-end New-town, of
" cholera (3 days)." The daughter of a lighterman,
aged four months, died on Jan. 3 at 8, Ann-street,
Ratcliff, from " suffocation from a cat lying on her
face while sleeping. (Inquest.) The wife of a labourer,
aged 66, died on Jan. 3 at 95, Sutton-street, St.
George-in-the-East, from " exhaustion by-exposure
to cold." (Inquest.) A pensioner, aged 75, died on
Jan. 4 at 1, Upper Fitzroy-place, Regent's-
park, from " effusion of serum on brain produced
by the cold." Post mort. (Inquest.) A girl, aged
10 years, died on the sth of Jan. at 43, Upper Rath-
bone-place, Oxford-street, from " congestion of
lungs caused by the cold." Post mort. (Inquest.)
The widow of a baker, aged 70 years, died on the
4th of Jan., at 1, William-street, Mile end Old-
town, from " disease of heart, accelerated by the
intense cold." (Inquest.) The widow of a mariner,
aged 90 years, died on the 2d of January, at 30,
William-street, Mile-end Old-town, from " bron-
chitis, accelerated by the intense cold." (inquest.)
The widow of a mate in the navy, aged 87 years,
died on the sth of January, at 77, New-street,
Mile-end Old-town, from " exposure to cold." (In-
quest.) An assistant to a cattle dealer, aged 40
years, died on the 6th of Jan. in the casual ward of
the East London Union, from " exposure to cold,
accellerated by intoxication." Post mort. (Inquest.)
A female, aged 37 years, died on the 7th of Jan., at
Old-street (St. Luke's) police-station, "from disease
of lungs, accelerated by exposure and want." Post
mort. (Inquest.)
The annual rate of mortality last week was 32 per
1,000 in London and 33 in Edinburgh ; 25 in
Bristol, 25 in Birmingham, 36 in Liverpool, 38 in
Manchester, 39 in Salford, 32 in Sheffield, 31 in
Leeds, 29 in Hull, 42 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and
73 in Glasgow. The rate in Vienna was 30 per
1,000 during the week ending the 29th ult., when
the mean temperature was 17.4 deg. Fahrenheit
lower than in the same week in London, where the
rate was 24 per 1,000.
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 29.144 in.
The barometrical reading decreased from 29.63 in.
at the beginning of the week to 28.54 on Tues-
day. The mean temperature of the air in the week
was 39.3 deg., which is 3.4 deg. above the average
of the same week in 50 years (as determined by Mr.
Glaisher.) The highest day temperature was 54.4
deg., on Monday. The lowest night temperature
was 22.5 deg. on Saturday. The entire range
of temperature in the week was, therefore, 31.9
deg. The mean of the highest temperature of
the water of the Thames was 36.6 deg. ; that of
the lowest was 33.3 deg. The difference between the
mean dew-point temperature and air temperature
was 4.1 deg. The mean degree of humidity of the
air was 85, complete saturation being represented
by 100. Rain fell to the amount of I.2Ein. Snow
fell on Saturday. The general direction of the wind
was S.S.W. and N.W.
to

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.-Mr Goldwin Smith possesses a very con-
siderable knowledge of English history, and a style
which is peculiarly adapted to attract and retain the
attention of a large audience. He has apparently
come to the conclusion that these good gifts are
wasted on an unsympathising audience of Oxford
undergraduates ; so he has resigned his Professor-
ship, and betaken himself to the instruction of the
masses by means of political lectures. He selects a
period of English history which preceded a great
Revolution, and a character which was at one time
the foremost in English Parliamentary annals. Such
an undertaking would seem, at first sight, to be of a
nature calling for notice rather in the part of this
journal devoted to literary than to political discus-
sions. But those who think so undervalue the origi-
nality of Mr. Smith's idea. To use a well-known
German proverb, " He strikes the sack, but he means
the ass." The lecture is resorted to and will be
valued, not for the light it throws on the time of
Charles 1., but for its pungent allusions to the reign
of Queen Victoria. It does not pretend to impar-
tiality. It is not written to enlighten us as to the
past, but as to the present and the future. It
assumes an audience bent on democratic change,
and it supplies them with arguments and illustra-
tions, forced often, and one-sided, but often also
telling and ingenious. The chair was taken by Dr.
Temple, the advocate, if we remember rightly, in
our columns of something very closely resembling
Universal Suffrage, and the lecture was quite in
keeping with the opinions of the chairman. Mr.
Smith is no friend to revolution—that is, as we
understand him, to change effected by violence—.
but he seems willing to entertain the idea of any

amount of change, and even to welcome it as good, troduced into the military system has been done
so long as it can be wrought out by constitutional with the concurrence of the Diet. " This right,"
agency. He tells us that if Pym were to come among the Address continues, "is a vital condition of our
us now he would be thought " too clever for us," constitution, and generally of all constitutionalism,
and asks, "Is it that wealth too much accum- ; which the country can never give up. The Imperial
mulated and too little diffused has placed the decree with respect to the defensive system recently
leadership of the nation in less worthy issued is a new positive denial of this indisputable
hands ?" We confess to some amount of seep- ' right." In this paragraph is comprised the entire
ticism as to the extraordinary oratorical merits of case of the Diet against the Sovereign ; and as the
Pym, who was probably as inferior to Mirabeau correctness of the views therein expressed cannot be
in the art of swaying a popular assembly as he contested, the Emperor is left no choice between re:
was superior to him in the higher qualities of states- scinding his Patent and declaring that the so-called
manship and moral worth. His speeches are ' constitution which is to be given to Hungary is to be
pedantic, heavy, and tedious to a degree which subject to conditions which will deprive it of all real
.
would be intolerable in the less patient times in worth. However excellent a numerous army may
which we live, and it requires all our gratitude for j be, the Emperor is told that neither numbers no'
the great services which he undoubtedly rendered ' valour constitute the true elements of its strength.
the country to reconcile us to a perusal of such relics " Were the defensive system to remain as it is, the
of him as remain. But, waving this literary ques- strength and enduring determination of the army
tion, why does Mr. Smith contrast our times with would be mainly elevated when backed up by the
those of the Long Parliament, as regards the ac- enthusiastic will of the people. But we can only
cumulation and distribution of wealth ? Does he reckon upon this enthusiastic will if the system
really think that wealth was more evenly distributed under which the citizen is bound to defend the State
at a time when England was still in the fetters of meets the confidence of the nation." Hence it fol-
the feudal system, when the middle class was only lows that the method of reorganisation adopted by
just emerging into notice, and when we had ceased the Emperor is as injudicious as it is unconstitu-
to be a great military power, without having become tional ; and in the interests of the empire and of the
a considerable commercial State ? And even if it kingdom, for whose security he is anxious to pro-
were so, is it any reproach to modern English vide, he is sought to retrace the dangerous step
society, in which the acquisition of wealth is so free which he has just taken. It may with truth be
and open to all, that those who have once obtained said that there is not a word in the Address voted
it have been prudent enough to keep it, that the by the Hungarian Diet to which any one but an
security of our laws and the mildness of our Govern- enemy to the Emperor could take exception. it
ment have saved the rich from plunder, and that no places in a clear light the actual position of affairs,
compulsory law of subdivision steps in to break up and frankly discloses the dangers to which the em-
our great families, depreciate the value of our lands, pire is exposed by the fast and loose policy which
and reduce the prizes of industry ? " Oxford," Mr. the Imperial Government are now pursuing. Either
Smith tells us, " which formerly gave us patriots Hungary is to have a constitutional Government or
and statesmen like Pym, now seems by her political she is not ; but if the former, then it must be a con-
bearing to dishonour learning, and, by an ignoble stitutional Government, in the fullest sense of the
choice, did a wrong to the nation which Lancashire term, or otherwise none of the objects with which
was called on to redress." We are to infer from it is established can be realised. H Francis Joseph
this that Pym is to be ranked among the champions finds it expedient to maintain a despotism through-
of Democracy, and, further, that -the question novi
at out his dominions, then let him do so by all means,
issue is similar in some respects to that which
but if he thinks it safer to make those concessions
brought on the great Civil War in the reign which he has promised, they must be made freely
of Charles I. We believe that history might and without reserve. As we have always under-
be searched iu vain for a more inappropriate stood the matter, the Emperor resolved on making
parallel. The struggle in the reign of the first Hungary autonomous, because by so doing he
Charles was between the Crown and the Church would conciliate the nation, and be able to reckon
on the one side, and the people and Dissent on the on its loyalty and fidelity in the hour of danger and
other. The question was, not whether there should of need. Expelled from Germany and Italy, the
be a Church, but whether the Church should Kaiser was compelled to attempt the consolidation
inflict cruel and sanguinary penalties on Noncon- of such dominions as were left to him, and this end,
formists in the Courts of High Commission and as we supposed, he thought would be best secured
Star Chamber, carried on on principles of " Crimi- by removing all cause for disaffection in the King-
nal Equity" unknown to the law of England ; dom of Hungary. But, judging from the publics-
whether the Crown could levy taxes by its preroga- tion of the Imperial Patent, it would seem that he
tine ; and whether that Parliament which we are
has been actuated by no such motives, or has singly'
now directed to consider as the greatest of our
at all. There is no idea now laxly misunderstood the sentiments of the Hungarian
grievances was to meet people. If the proposed new military system be
.3._
over any one for religious good one, there can be no objection to submitting It
,
obfeleiexfe,rjeuissitnicgei tyrannysadministered in regular course, taxes for the sanction of the Diet since its excellence
are imposed by Parliament alone, and that very Par- would most probably secure for it the necessary
liament whose existence was then at stake has been sanction. The fact, however, seems to be that
for nearly two centuries the ruling body of the State. Francis Joseph cannot divest himself of the attri-
The abuses against which Pym and the Long Parlia_ butes of a despotic prince. He, perhaps, believes
ment protested' and ultimately took arms were plain, that a country can alone be well governed by an
gross, and palpable. They had eaten into the very
absolute monarch. If such be his sentiments, he
heart of the nation ; they were felt round every
would do well to ponder on the advice contained m
hearthstone ; they were the talk of every market- the concluding paragraph of the Address :—" Wc
place. The momentous issue was nothing less than are convinced that it is only by constitutionalism,as
whether England should be a land of law, of individual well in Hungary as in your Majesty's other domi-
nions, being fully and positively brought into exist'
freedom, of settled Government,—whether it should
continue Protestant, progressive, and Parliament- ence, that the object laid down by the Pragmatic
ary,—or whether it should become the mere toy of Sanction will be able to be attained."
a despot and his minions, blown about by every
breeze of Court caprice, with an enslaved populace,
a degraded middle class, and a servile aristocracy.
" Seldom," says Mr. Goldwin Smith, " has there
been more need of unveiling the statue of Pym than
now." We ask, why now ? Which of the causes of
which Pym was the champion is in peril ? What
danger threatens us from without ; what tyranny
from within ? Is there any one who pretends in
these days that the Crown has too much power,
that justice is not impartially administered, that
Nonconformists are subject to persecution, that
Parliament has not full control over the national
expenditure ? The cries that set men's blood on
fire in the days of the Long Parliament have no
echoes now; the grievances they complained of
have long since been redressed, and the very memory
of them has been obliterated as a thing that had
never been. Were a Cromwell to come now, his
greatest service would be, now as then, to put down
Democracy with a high hand. The cry for Reform at
present springs from speculative rather than practical
grievances. The complaint is of inequality, not of
injustice ; that power is not given to all, not that
those in whose hands it is vested misuse it. There
is not the slightest colour for supposing that Eliot,
Pym, or Hampden, if they came to life at the pre-
sent day, would feel the slightest sympathy with
those who are trying to reduce the Government of
England to a Democracy. Mr. Smith asks tri-
umphantly, " Where are the 4,000 freeholders of
Buckinghamshire now ?" as if there were some sin
chargeable to the nation for their disappearance.
We answer, Gone with the irrevocable past ; gone
with many things, some good, some evil, which
cannot exist together with a highly developed state
of commercial and manufacturing prosperity, which
makes the possession of the land the luxury of the
rich instead of the resource of the poor. Mr. Smith
is very indignant with those who tell us that martial
law is the suspension of all law ; and yet this is un-
doubtedly true, and never was better expressed
than by Col. Pride, when he said that he purged
Parliament by no law at all, but only by the power
of the sword. If Mr. Smith were to announce a
lecture on Parliamentary Reform, or any kindred
topic, he would be bound to prove the positions
which he lays down—a task which we have suffi-
ciently shown he would find extremely difficult.
But by selecting a subject more than 220 years old
he relieves himself from this necessity, and is able
to introduce, by way of illustration, assumptions
with regard to present times which he would find it
difficult to support by arguments. Dr. Temple may
call this " uniting an appreciation of all that is re-
fined and cultivated with a perfect recognition of
the rights of a free people." To us it appears a
rhetorical artifice, singularly favourable to uncandid
innuendo and unjust insinuation.
POST.—The patent issued by the Emperor of
Austria for the reorganisation of the army has eli-
cited, as might have been expected, a strong remons-
trance
energetically
has Whatever
been r
emadgauayei
en bds et
est
hlvi
eee r
hcyoa nms di a
steivouenrr e te
eoe
ma
swae
nhd
ai ctt 1(1)-
from the representatives of the Hungarian
nation.Hungaryproest
ing from the Imperial Government which hasignored
the constitutional rights of her people, and now at
a time when strong hopes are held out' that she will
again be entrusted with the privilege of self-govern-
ment, and when after a long protracted period of
servitude she has become conscious of the possession
of a strength which her royal master dares not
despise, it was not likely that she would submit in
silence to a decree as sweeping and as arbitrary in
its nature as a Russian ukase. Into the merits of
the scheme for the reorganisation of the Imperial
army it is needless to enter. They are entirely
beside the question which is now in issue between
the King of Hungary and his subjects. We will
assume, for the sake of argument, that the proposal
of his Majesty is substantially a sound one, and that
the interests of the empire demand its acceptance.
The results of the late war doubtless satisfied
Francis Joseph that, notwithstanding its boasted
excellence and efficiency, his army was by no means
so well organised as that of his German foe ; and as
it is lawful to learn of one's enemy, the Emperor
has come to the conclusion that he could not do
better than remodel his army after the fashion of
that by which it was defeated. Whatever faults
may be attributed to the Prussian Government, it
cannot justly be said that their military system is
defective, and we may therefore assume that the
Emperor of Austria has exercised a sound discretion
in resolving to adopt it. But a good thing may be
done in a bad way, and this is just the mistake
which the Emperor has committed. Forgetting that
he had just promised to Hungary the re-establish-
ment of her political rights and an autonomy as
complete as was consistent with the interests of the
empire, he by a mere stroke of his pen altered the
laws governing conscription and imposed upon
his Hungarian subjects greater military burdens
than those which they have hitherto borne.
It was just as if the English Government,
having come to the conclusion that our standing
army was insufficient in numbers, or that
the term of service needed extension, increased
the number of troops or extended the period of
their liability to service without consulting Parlia-
ment. If Hungary is to have a Diet, and if her
Government is to be carried on by a responsible
Ministry iu the name of the King, it is not unrea-
sonable to expect that on a matter of such vital im-
portance as that involved in the reorganisation
of the existing military system, the opinion and
sanction of the Diet would in the first instance be
asked and obtained. That he acted not as a consti-
tutional Sovereign, butas a despot, is the gravamen
of the charge advanced against the Emperor of Aus-
tria by the Hungarian Parliament. The Address
which, at the instance of M. Beak, has been adopted
by the Lower House of the Diet, very respectfully,
but very firmly, points out to the Emperor the
gravity of the mistake which he has committed.
Dismissing entirely the merits of the proposed
change in the organisation of the army, it simply
contrasts the course of action pursued by the Go-
vernment in issuing the Patent with the promises so
recently made to Hungary, and the hopes which
those promises served to inspire. Reviewing almost
unnecessarily the basis on which the executive and
legislative power resides in llungary, the Emperor
is reminded that eyery change, however slight, in-

COUNTRY MARKETS.

MANCHESTER--TxuRsDAY.
Our market this morning was averagely atteaded. Both,'
English and foreign wheat were held firmly at the flu
currency of this day se'ennight, but there was little dis-
position to buy. Oats were steady, without change 11/
price, but oatmeal was the turn dearer. Beans, both Eng;
lish and foreign, sold rather better. Flour sold slowly, at
last week's rates. Indian corn advanced 6d per qr.