The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-05 00:00:00

" MARRIAGES.

" 38,628 weddings were celebrated in the quarter
that ended Sept. 30; consequently 77,256 persons
were married. The numbers were below the num-
bers of the married in the corresponding quarters
of 1857 and 1856. The decrease since 1856 is ob-
servable in London and in the divisions south of the
Thames. The marriages in Lancashire, Yorkshire,
and the northern division were nearly stationary ;
in the Welsh division they decreased.
" BIRTHS.

" The births of 158,007 children were registered
in the quarter that ended on Dec. 31st ; so the
births were at the annual rate of 3.198 per cent.,
or •017 over the average of the quarter, but below
the rates of the corresponding quarters of the two
previous years.
" 655,627 births were registeaed in the year
185 S, and the birth-rate was 3.358.

" INCREASE OF POPULATION.

" As 158,00-7 births and 118,663 deaths were
registered, the natural increase of the population
was 39,344, or 428 souls daily. The probable
natural increase of population of the United King-
dom was 642 daily.

" 7,973, or, allowing for the numbers of undis-
tinguished origin, about 9,516 English emigrants
—lO3 daily—sailed from the chief ports of the
United Kingdom in the last three months of the
year 1858; namely, 2,834 to the United States, 6,392
to the Australian colonies, 289 to other places.t
" The natural increase of the population of Eng-
land in the whole year was 205,609, or 563 daily.
" 113,972 emigrants sailed Irom the ports of the
United Kingdom in the year 1858. Of the number
about 45,736 were of English origin; on an average
125 English men and women left our shores daily.
" PRICES, THE WEATHER, AND PAUPERISM.

" The funds rose and the prices of wheat con-
tinued to fall in the year 1858. Wheat was sold at
41s. 9d. a quarter on an average during the last 13
weeks of the year; and the prices in the 13 corre-
sponding weeks of 1856 and 1857 were 635. 4d. and
525. The fall was 34 per cent. in two years. Beef,
by tho carcase was 5 2-Bd., sad., and. 5 2-Bd. per
lb. in the same seasons at Leadenhall and Newgate
markets; mutton, 5 6-Bd., 5 6-Bd., "and 5 4-Bd. The
average prices of beef were stationary; but the ave-
rage prices of the higher qualities fell from 6ad. to
60.; the prices of the lower qualities rose from 31d.
to 4d. Again, the prices of the best mutton by the
carcase was 61d. at the beginning and the end of
the period; but the price of the inferior mutton fell
a 2d. in the pound. Potatoes, which are so impor-
tant an article of food, were sold at the rate of 100 s.,
1405., and 87s. 6d. a ton at the waterside market,
Southwark, in the three last quarters of the years
1856-7-8. Potatoes have been 37 per cent. cheaper
than they were in the corresponding weeks of 1857,
and 12 per cent. cheaper than they were in 1856.
" The weather in the last quarter was peculiar
and had considerable effect on the mortality. The
average temperature of the three months at Green-
wich was 43.2 deg., differing little (0.2 deg.) from
the average of the corresponding months of 87
years. But November was very cold ; the mean
temperature was 39.6 deg., and on the 24th of No-
vember the lowest temperature recorded was at
many stations below 20 deg.-that is, 12 deg. below
the freezing point of water. The mean tempera-
ture has been lower in only 12 out of 87 Novem-
bers. October and December Were above the
average temperature of those months. October and
November were dry ; December moist. The fall of
rain was deficient in each month; for the fall was
only 3.1 in., and the deficiency in the quarter
amounted to 4.5 in. The rainfall was in the four
last years 1855-58 respectively 23.5 in., 21.5 in.,
21.41 u., and 17.2 in. The 17.2 in. of rain in 1858
was the lowest rainfall since,lB4o; in that year the
rainfall was 16.4 in. The effect of this deficiency
on the wells and the water supply of the people
generally must be borne in mind, for when the
springs fail stagnant water is sometimes drunk and
employed for domestic use.
The Poor Law Board has favoured the Regis-
trar-General with returns which are of great
interest, and throw much light on the condition of
the people. They require little explanation. We
learn from them that on an average during the
quarter that ended on December the 31st last
115,751 in-door paupers and 710,904 out-doOr
paupers were relieved under the Poor Law ; or,
826,655 persons in the aggregate were in the re-
ceipt of relief. The average number of out-door
paupers in the last 13 weeks of the years 1856,
1857, and 1858 were 720,009, 736,814, and 710,904.
The number in the 13 weeks of the last year is
less than the numbers in the corresponding
weeks of the two preceding years. In the year
1857 there were on an average 4.49 in-door and
out•door paupers to 100 of the population • in 1858
the proportion was nearly the same (4.51). The
average numbers, after corrections for places making
no returns, Were 869,027 and 882,498. The first
quarter of 1858 was a season of evident distress,
and the paupers then receiving relief amounted on
a weekly average to nearly a million (974,017).
The distress continued in spring, but diminished as
summer advanced.
" England thus, under her system of Poor Laws,
bestows on one in 22 of her population, taking one
day with another, relief to the extent of about 4d.
a-day, making in the aggregate about £6,000,000
a-year. This is perhaps not more than 2 per cent.
on the income of all classes.
" Some foreign writers occasionally speak of
England as a country eaten up' by pauperism ;
they do not seem to be aware of the fact that in
other countries-as in Ireland formerly-the ab-
sence of a legally ordained system of relief implies
aggravation, and not absence of distress. It would
be equally correct to look upon England as a coun-
try of wealthy ratepayers overflowing with Chris-
tian charity.
" STATE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTII.
" 118,663 deaths were registered in the three
months that ended on Dec. 31. After correcting
for increase of population, this implies that the
mortality was at the annual rate of 2.402 per cent.
l thya no
f2t4h ine lu,
aololoe
.1. in town districts
o r rather The
Imo
tr ae
was at the rate of 28 in 1,000 living ; in the dis-
tricts of the country, of villages, and of small towns
the mortality was at the rate of 21 in 1,000 living.
Upon taking the four quarters, of which the returns
are now complete, the result is that the deaths
of 450,018 persons were registered in the year
1858, and the annual mortality was at the rate of
23 in 1,000 ; in the large town districts the annual
rate was 25 or more ; in the other districts 21 in
1,000 died. •
" The population of England is only enumerated
every 10 years, and the difficulty arising from our
ignorance of the exact population of the several
parts of the country is now sensibly felt. It is
nearly eight years since the census was taken ; and
the growth of the population of the whole country
has undergone considerable fluctuations during this
important period. Particular towns are necessarily
exposed to greater fluctuations than the whole
kingdom; as they arepeopled partly by indigenous
inhabitants and partly by emigrants from the coun-
try. If we assume that the town population, which
in the aggregate, amounted to 8,247,017 in 1851,
increased at the rate which prevailed in the previous
10 years (1841-51) up to 1858, the numbers would
amount in the middle of that year to 9,471,204 ; and
the mortality in the year would be at the rate of
25 in 1,000. This may be taken as an under-esti-
mate of the mortality of the towns ; as 21 in 1,000
is rather an over-estimate of the mortality in the
country.
. " The population of England and Wales in the
middle of 1858 probably did not exceed 19,576,950 t;
and, at the rates of comparatively healthy districts,
the deaths in the year should not have exceeded
349,398 ; the actual deaths amounted to 450,018,
and the excess of 100,620 deaths is due chiefly to

* Tho Scotch returns have not yet been received. Irish
births and deaths are not registered. The excess of births
over deaths in England and Wales is raised 50 Rer cent., to
represent approximately the excess in the Unite Kingdom.
t From a return which the Registrar-General has been
favoured by the Emigration Commissioners, the number re-
turned as of English origin was 7,973, while the birthplace
of 3,360 was not distinguished. In the above statement a
proportional number of these have been added to those re-
turned as of English ori6in.
t This result is obtained by assuming that the popula-
tion. has increased in the towns and in the country at the
same rates since 1851 as in the 10 previous years (1841-51);
by taking the excess of births registered over deaths in the
whole country the population is 19,523,000,