The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-11 00:00:00

REALM OF LONDON DURING THE

WEEK.

(Prom the Report of the Registrar-General.)

1 The returns now exhibit that increase in the mor-
tality which usually begins in the 11th month of
the year. In the present instance the increase is con-
siderable, the deaths registered in London, which in
the two preceding weeks were 988 and 1,047, having
risen in the week that ended last Saturday (Nov.
7) to 1,166. In the 10 years 1847-56 the average
number of deaths in the weeks corresponding with
last week was 1,039. But population has increased,
and the same rate of mortality would have pro-
duced last week 1,143 deaths. The actual number
is slightly in excess of the estimated number—a re-
sult which is not so favourable as those that have
been recently obtained.
The births returned in the same week exceed the
deaths by 516.
In comparing the deaths now returned with those
of the former week, and distributing the ages at
deaths in five vicenniads, it will appear that the in-
crease above mentioned occurred in every period
except that which extends from 40 to 60 years.
Among persons 60 years and upwards the deaths in-
crewed from 184 to 259. From diseases of

the respiratory organs (exclusive of hooping-
cough and phthisis) the number of persons wlio
died at all ages in the previous week was 190 ; last
week it was 261. Influenza showed itself, and,
though only four cases are referred to it in the
tables. part of the increase found under some other
complaint is probably due to its influence. The
deaths from diseases of the digestive organs rose
from 55 to 79. Under other heads the fluctuations
are unimportant. Three children and two adults
(the latter in the Small-pox Hospital) died of small-
pox: l'wenty-thiee'childi.en died of -niettiles '; and
five of these diel in the sub-district of Whitecross-
street. In that sub-district 9 out of the 18 deaths
returned were from me.isles, scarlatina, and fever.
Diarrhea continues to decline, and the deaths from

it last week were only 27. There were two deaths
from cholera ; a widow, aged 66 years, died on the
4th of Nov., at 117, Gravel-lane, Aldgate, of
" cholera, typhoid fever (3 days) ;" and a mau,
aged 38 years, died on the 6th of Nov., at 2, Gaul
ston-street, lilThitechapel, of "cholera, after 14
hours' illness."
It deserves to be noticed that four children died
from want of breastmilk in St. George's Workhouse,
Little Chelsea, —three on the Ist inst., one on the
2d. Three of these infants were foundlings. The
total number of deaths from want of breastmilk or
inanition in London was 13. Six nonagenarians
died in the week ; the oldest of these was a widow,
aged 9G years, who died at 7, Little Denmark-
street, St. Giles ; she received the Queen's Bounty,
and in part supported herself, till within a year of
her death, by needlework. •
Last week the births of 859 boys and 823 girls,
—in all 1,682 children,—were registered iu Lon-
don. In the 10 corresponding weeks of the years
1847-56 the average number was 1,537.
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 29.748 in.
The mean reading on Saturday was 30.072 in.
The mean temperature of the week was 53.8 deg.,
which is 7.9 deg. above the average of the same
week in 43 years (as determined by Mr. Glaisher).
The mean daily temperature was considerably
above the average throughout the week, and on
Tuesday the excess was so much as 12.7 degrees.
The highest reading of the thermometer in
the shaae occurred on Tuesday, and was 64.3
deg. ; the lowest was 43.9 deg. on the previous
day. The mean daily range of the week was 10.1
deg. The greatest range occurred on Monday and
was 15.8 deg. The mean dew point temperature
was 52.1 deg., and the difference between this and
the mean air temperature wai only 1.7 deg. The
temperature of the water of the Thames ranged from
50.2 deg. to 54.7 deg. At the beginning of the
week the wind was in the south-east ; on the last
four days it blew generally from the north-east.
Rain fell to the amount of 0.49 in., nearly all of
which fell on Wednesday.

MORTALITY IN THE METROPOLIS.
NUMBER OF DEATHS FROM ALL CAUSES REGISTERED

TILE WEEK ENDING SATDRDAY, NOV. 7.
Zymotic Diseases
Diseases of Uncertain Seat
Tubercular Diseases
Diseases of the Brain, Nerves and Senses
Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels 46
Diseases of the Lungs and other Organs of
Respiration . 261
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.
Malformations ... 1
Premature Birth and Debility 34
Atrophy 2B
Old Age
udden .. 9
Violence, Privation, Cold, and Intemperance 3l
Causes not specified

DEATHS YBOM ALL CAUSES

Population Deaths in corre- Deaths
Enumerated. sponding week in the

1851. of 1856. Week
West Districts •376,427 159
North Districts 490,396
Central Districts.,... 393,256
East Districts 485,522
South Districts

Totals
Males 572
Females 594
BIRTHS IN THE WEEK.

Males
Females..

Total ... .----......, 1,632

THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

An additional source of pleasure and instruction
bas recently been laid open to the public by the
authorities of the British Museum. Visitors now
find themselves at liberty to pass from the entrance
hall into the Granville Library, and onwards through
the manuscript department into the King's Library,
on leaving which they find open to them a staircase,
hitherto closed, by which they can pass up immedi-
ately to the galleries of natural history. But the pur-
pose of this newly-conceded privilege has not been
to lay open these noble rooms, containing the best
portions of our national library, merely for the con-
venience of the public. Throughout the entire
length of these rooms are arranged table cases, on
which are set out such choice and curious speci-
mens of block-books, manuscripts, and examples of
typographical art as have been thought most cal-
culated to instruct and interest the visitor. Against
each work thus exhibited is placed a short account,
describing the point of interest for which it has
been selected. In the Granville Library, the first
of these rooms entered from the hall, are laid out
the most remarkable specimens of block-books, i.e.,
books printed from carved blocks of wood on one side
of the leaf only, which are thought to be the work of
the card-makers in the 15th century, and executed
in Holland, Flanders, and Germany, before and
during the practice of the art with moveable metal
types. From the Granville Library the visitor passes
into the manuscript department, where be will find
exhibited aselection of manuscripts remarkable either
for their antiquity, their beauty, or some touching
point of interest—of which, to quote an example, we
mention the autograph will of Mary Queen of Scots.
In passing up the King's Library from the Manu-
script Room, the visitor will find laid out iu the six
table cases which occupy the length of the' library to
his left a range of open volumes, expressly selected ,
to show the entire history of printing from its earliest
period downwards. In the six table cases on the
opposits side of the King's Library he will find ex-
hibited choice specimens of sumptuous printing, of
book illumination, of beautiful illustrations to
books, of remarkable examples of costly and
elegant binding, curiosities, and autographs.
These rooms are to continue open to visitors ou the
usual days of admission to the Museum..

COMMERCIAL MATTERS IN NEW YORK.--The private
letters from New York by the Asia are all of a
better tone than the newspaper accounts. Owing to
the influx of specie the banks were believed to con-
template resumption at a very early date. Annexed is
an extract from a letter from one of the soundest and
least sangnme merchants in the country :—." The specie
now on the way will not make much, as. sterling is
very scarce, and no good bills can be had. under 105
to 106, and I expect next week they v ri'l be 108
Specie is worth only about per cent. pvemium. I
am happy to say, with the exception of tb-s dry goods
interest, there is a better feeling in all branches of
trade. The wholesale grocers are doing mare business,
and the banks discount more freely, but, as a matter
of course, are very careful what paper thvey take. If
nothing very bad comes from England .I think the
worst is over. Should we receive withi n the next
month, half a million sterling in gold from , Europe we
shall have to ship it back again in Janus .ry."

[PRIaII -vv.)

T i'E PASSPORT SES'T.I4I.II.

(From the Times.)

Our contemporary the Constitutionnel hs ac-
, tually expr_ssed its will n.gne,zs to accept a " serions.
discussion" on the Passport system. We sincerely
trust this offer implies some resolution to place the
system on its own merits, and to leave it to stand
or fall by the conclusions arrived at. With the
hope of such a result we return to the subject even
in the midst of more momentous and engrossing
topics, for although, as our contemporary very
truly remarks, the vexation of English travellers
is not quite so important a matter as the Indian
mutinies, it is worth a little trouble to convict a
system which does more to embarrass the inter-
course of two great and friendly countries than any
other incident affecting the com munica. ions between
them.
M. Cauvain, who undertakes the defence of the
Passport system, and who characterises cur objec-
tions to it as "calumnies" against the customs of
a foreign State, is not content with affirming that
the system, after all, really prevails in England as
well as in France, but roundly declare:that, in
more respects than one, it operates as a positive
protection to people on their travels. The former
of these assertions will astonish most of our readers,
whether British or foreign, and especially when we
observe that M. Cauvain's authority for his state-
ment is drawn exclusively from our own columns.
A few days ago a correspondent called cur atten-
tion to thefact that, according to certain regulations,
a stranger arriving at Folkestone was bound under
a penalty of 40s. to present himself at an olßce
in the Custom-house, produce his passport, and
receive a certificate of his arrival. How far the
regulations are enforced we jilo n t p;=!;&t1. to
know, but this much we yentaii:e to' say
foreigner travelling in England would ever think of
assertini, on his return that' he had experienced the
least delay, extortion, or annoyance in respect of
his passport from the first moment of ks visit to
the last. We put the case in this broad light to
bring tie question at once to issue ; but, assuming
even that tue rule referred to is rigidly executed, •
what possible analogy, we ask, can be established
between such a provision and the elaborate system
of passports prevailing on the continent ? In Eng-
land, at the most, a foreigner (not an Englishman)
may be required, on entering an office which he
must needs visit under any circumstances, to regis-
ter his name. There ends the whole regulation.
There is no system about the proceeding, no machi-
nery for conducting it, and, above all, no penalty
worth mentioning for leaving things undone alto-
gether. The traveller cannot be detained, at the
one single point of detention, more than a minute
or two, and, if he objects even to this delay, he
may snap his fingers and go off straight with no
other liability than a flue of a couple of sovereigns.
With this arrangement let AI. Cauvain com-
pare the "manners and customs" which he stands

up to defend. A system of the most extensive
and complex description, embracing every depart-
ment, every prefecture, every town, and every
port, is maintained at a large cost, and with an
enormous staff of • officers, for the simple purpose
of tracking like a thief every person who stirs
from his home. Not only Englishmen, but French-
men too, ou their own native soil, are compelled,
before they can travel a dozen miles, to procure per-
mission to do so by personal application, and to
carry about with them, and produce upon every de-
mand, an official warrant entitling them to be where
they are. This warrant must be inspected, exa-
mined, revised, exchanged, and passed through
every conceivable process of verification and regis-
tration, with a perpetual infliction of small expensa
and an interminable tax upon patience. To crown
all, supposing that through ignorance the ceremony,
or any incident of it, has been omitted, or imper-
fectly transacted, or the warrant itself by any acci-
dent lost or mislaid, the consequences become equi-
valent to those of actual felony for the time being.
An unfortunate traveller with no passport or an in-

formal one is impounded forthwith, is forbidden to
pursue his journey no matter what may be the
urgency of the case, and may be very thankful if
the surveillance under which he is placed falls
something short of positive imprisonment. So
much for the "complete analogy" subsisting be-
tween English and continental institutions in this

respect.
M. Cauvain, however, takes higher ground than

the mere to quoque argument when he asserts of the
Passports system that it is a real comfort and conve-
nience to travellers. Did he ever find a traveller
who thought so I Certainly, if Frenchmen choose
to put themselves through these " simple formali-
ties," it is not for us to cavil at their fancy ; but,.
as we presumed to know something of Engli*h
opinion, our contemporary will perhaps accept our
word for the fact, that we are utterly insensible to
the benefit designed, and wish for•nothiug more
heartily than that the whole systein should be
exploded to-morrow. If there be any advautages
attending it we surrender them all without a
moment's hesitation. An Englishman is perfectly
satisfied of his own " identity" without getting it
" established" by a certificate of police ; he can
find the way to his own Ambassador without the
sanction of a constable, and provide himself with
money for his journey apart from the kind offices
of either mayor or gendarmes. In so far as the
system is kept up for our benefit we can confidently
assure M. Cauvain that the labour is utterly
thrown' away, and that it may be abolished this
very instant not only without remonstrance on our
part, but with the greatest possible satisfaction to
all classes in the habit of visiting their continental
neighbours.
The matter is really not quite so trivial as it
appears. To be sure, the extortions of the system
are on a petty scale and the annoyances not often
of a very afflicting kind, but they are sufficient
altogether to keep some persons away from France
who would very gladly go there, and, what is of far
more consequence, the perpetual irritation, though
slight perhaps in itself, inevitably operates to the
prejudice of the views with which an Englishman
might otherwise return from a country in many
respects better managed than his own. Perhaps
the people of other nations do not suffer quite so
much as we do, but there is nothing so disagreeable
to an Englishman as small interruptions for small
demands. It is as much as ever we can do to en-
dure a turnpike ;in fact, in London we have
abolished them, and in Wales they pulled them
down. A man spending a thousand a-year without
stint will go half-a-mile round to avoid a bridge
where he would be stopped for a halfpenny. We
do not like to be interfered with at all ; still less
do we like to be guaged and measured like a bale
of goods, stamped with a brand, and then put in
circulation, to be tested and branded over again at
the next police-office. We do this kind of thing in
our prisons, because there is no avoiding it, but
when we visit a foreign country prepare to admire

it and to enjoy ourielves, we do not like to be

handled as if we were in a convict settlement!
If all this were necessary either from geograph-
cal configuration, or frontier difficulties, or any
other incident of continental position, we could only
submit with the best grace possible but we main-
tain that it is not so, and we appeal to every day's
experience in proof of our words. There is not a
police-officer on the continent who would place a
moment's reliance on the passport system as an
effective instrument of detection or security. A

conspirator denounced by half-a-dozen Govern-
ments, and hunted by as many police agents, can
notoriously travel through. territory after territory,
without experiencing the least interruption. Per-
sons really exposed to suspicion are sever at fault.
They know well enough every form and feature of
the requisitions established, and are only too ready
.to comply with them in the minutest particular as

the price of escape. To them the Passport system
is really a protection, for;it:provides them with what
they would otherwise lack—a certificate of charac-
ter ; nor does *signify a sou whether this charic-
ter is true-or false so long as it is "regular." The
true operation of the Passport system consists in
the easy rehabilitation of rogues. When characters
are sold by the frailc on Government guarantee,
any man with silvecin hi4pocket can in a moment
become as respeetable as his neighbour. A piece of
stamped paper covet g all, and the end of the whole
machinery is a morallmasquerade, in which domi-
noes are provided at two shillings each and the dis-
guise made current:by authority.

Pawn OF GOLD.—Thd'quot;d the short exchange on
tiqnofgold atParis is)
aLboonudton7 ils'e27.n3l2lls
TpPerreml/iumete n
tling. On comparing these
rates with the English Mint price of 3/. 17s. 10 d. pei
ounce for standard gold it appears that gold is about
1-10th per cent, dearer in Paris than in London. 6 By
advices from Hamburg the price of gold is 424 per
mark, and the short exchange on London is 13.4 per
U. sterling. Standard gold at the English Mint price
is therefore nearly 1-10zh per cent dearer in London
than in Hamburg. Tne course o! exchange at New York
on London for bills at 60 days' sight is variously quoted
at from par up to 106 per cent., the latter being fo:
first•class paper only. There is, consequently, at pre-
sent no advantage in sending gold from this country,
as compared with drawing bills from America.