The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-15 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1866.

The weekly return of the births and deaths in
London, for the week ending last Saturday, con-
firms the favourable intelligence which we had
previously gathered from the daily reports. The
deaths from the prevailing epidemic show a de-
cided diminution—those from cholera and diarrhoea,
together amounting to 1,045, instead of 1,407 as
in the preceding week. The total number of
deaths registered last week was 2,299 ; in the
week before, 2,661 ; so that they were less by 52
daily in that ending on Saturday. This is very
encouraging, and the decrease in the mortality of
children is, says the Registrar, a gratifying proof
of the effects of increased care. In the eastern
districts, where the enemy seems to have concen-
trated his forces, and where the poverty of the
dense population lays them open to attack, there
is a marked diminution of cases, the deaths falling
from 1,041 to 774, so that there is good reason
to hope that the energetic measures taken to assist
the sufferers, and to relieve extreme destitution,
have already produced their effect. At the same
time this should not induce the public to relax their
efforts, but rather to increase them, since the mor-
tality is still very high, and the epidemic, though a
little less fatal, is still formidable. During the last
five weeks, according to the Registrar-General,
10,898 persons have died in London, of whom 4,454
have died from cholera and diarrhoea. These
figures, of course, represent a much wider range of
illness and distress ; and in many cases where the
heads of families have been laid low the
children are left penniless. Many harrowing
scenes are daily brought under the notice
of the Mansion-house Committee, and liberally as
the subscriptions have poured in, they are by no
means unnecessarily large. The efforts of these
gentlemen to give relief in the emergency are nobly
seconded by the local committees. England never
wants for volunteers in any good work, and the pre-
sent distress has called forth a number of self-
denying and laborious workers wherever their exer-
tions are needed. Some idea of the magnitude of
the suffering with which the Mansion-house
Committee have to deal may be gathered
from the report of yesterday's proceedings.
Nine gentlemen from Mile-end Old Town pre-
sented themselves yesterday. They have been
exerting themselves to raise a fund for the assist-
ance of persons suffering from cholera, convalescent
patients, and widows and orphans of persons who
have died from the epidemic. There are 12,000
houses in the " hamlet," and the population is
about 84,000. In the four weeks ending last
Saturday there had been 412 deaths from cholera,
of which 84 were the deaths of husbands, who left
84 Widows and more than 400 children.
During last week nearly 2,000 cases were
treated daily, excluding those in the Union.
The Mansion-house Committee granted £l5O and
ten gallons of port wine for the relief of this
district, which we may easily believe will be of
most valuable assistance in stemming the tide of
disease. From Bethnal-green, from St. George's-
in-the-East, from St. Luke's,Millwall from Strat-
ford and Wapping, the same tale was told with
trifling variations, and in every case the committee
made substantial grants. From the House of
Charity in Greek-street came a request for a grant
for clothing for the poor little children sent there
from the London Hospital. The efforts being
made by the various local authorities in provid_
ing medicines and advice for the poor without
any delay are also commendable, and we may hope
that a continuance of all such efforts may, under
PROVIDENCE, lead to still more reassuring results.
At the same time we must not be over-confident,
for as the Registrar-General expressly says, "
NO
greater mistake could be made than to relax the
efforts for combating the disease or for relieving
the distress which it has already wrought. each