The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-27 00:00:00

HEALTH OF LONDON DURING THE WEEK.

(From the Registrar-General's Weekly Return.)_

1 . _
In the week that ended last Saturday 1,214
deaths were registered, a number which is very
nearly the same as that of the previous return. The
average number of deaths as obtained from corre-
sponding weeks of ten previous years 1851-60, and
corrected for increase of population, is 1,432, and
the reduction of the mortality at the present time to
the extent of 218 deaths in a week below the esti-
mated number is to be regarded as a very favour-
able indication of the state of the public health.
The births of last week exceeded the deaths in
the same period by 766.
Seventy-five children, allof whom except 13 were
under three years of age, died of whooping-cough,
which at present is about twice as fatal as either
scarlatina or measles. Four infants and one adult
died of syphilitic disease. Twenty-six deaths
occurred from cancer. Bronchitis was fatal in 121
cases, and pneumonia in 59 ; the corrected average
for the former being 170, and that for the latter 108.
Of 9 fatal malformations 5 were cases spina bffida.
Two infants were murdered. The deaths of 9 nona-
genarians, one of whom was 94 years old, 3 were 95,
and 2 were 96 years, are recorded. Besides these
twhheore is a
diedactenot,eFnaasrhiaion h
Fashion-street,
_tstreeewt,idsot.wjoofhna,s7Hrpoernslteeyr_,
Horsley-
down, on the 21st of March, at the age of 100 years.
Aotflallaßuondllsr-ebsusi, Rolls-buildings, omnonththesl,6atihedoffMromarc,h,, the
son
con-
tinuous exposure to cold and damp ever since birth;
acute rheumatism (three weeks)." At 9 Princess-
street, Marylebone, on the 2d March, the daughter
of a cab-driver, aged 21 months, died from " natural
disease and want of sufficient nourishment ; no
default of parochial officers." (Inquest.) A man
aged 64 years was suffocated in the Strand Work-
house " by swallowing an orange."
Measles seems to prevail much in Kentish-town,
where 5 children died from it. Five died from
whooping-cough in the east sub district of Islington,
and 5 in St. John's, Westminster.
Last week the births of 991 boys and 989 girls, in
all 1,980 children, were registered in London. In
the ten corresponding weeks of the years 1851.60
the average number was 1,741.
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 29.375 in.
The readings rose to 29'85 in. on Sunday, and fell
to 2881 in. on Tuesday. The mean temperature of
the air in the week was 41.3 deg., which is 0.6 deg.
below the average of the same week in 43 years (as
determined by Mr. Glaisher). The thermometer in
the shade fell to 31.8 deg., the lowest point in the
week, on Sunday, and rose to its highest point
57.3 deg. on Saturday. The entire range in the
week was therefore 25.5 deg. The mean daily range
was 15.8 deg. The range on the last two days was
about 20 deg. The difference between the mean dew
point temperature and air temperature was 2.3 deg.
The mean degree of humidity of the air was 94,
complete saturation being representedby 100,which
point was closely approached on Wednesday and
Saturday. The wind blew almost exclusively from
W. and S.W. Rain fell on four days, but chiefly on
Sunday and Wednesday, the total amount being
0.69 in. Showers of sleet, hail, and rain fell on the
afternoon of Thursday. The mean temperature of
the water of the Thames was 43.8 deg.

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, TUESDAY MORNING.

Last flight a large and influential meeting was
held in the Metropolitan-hall, " To consider the
present state of the law affecting the celebration of
marriages in Ireland, and to petition Parliament
for such alterations therein as shall bring it into
harmony with the interests of public morals and
with the civil and religious rights of all classes of
the community. The Rev. Dr. Millar, Vicar of
Belfast, and the Rev. J. Macnaughton, appeared as
a deputation from Belfast.

The chair was taken by Mr. Alexander Hall.
The general terms of the advertisement did nut
convey the distinct object of the meeting, which
was to petition Parliament for the removal of cer-
tain grievances which affect the Protestant Dissen-
ters of this country in connexion with the Marriage
Law of 1844. The Yelverton case and the Bill of
the Lord Chancellor to legalise mixed marriages
performed by Roman Catholic priests have led to
the movement.

The Rev. Dr. MILLAR, who moved the first reso-
lution, contended that they should have the same
law for all—even-handed justice for all who paid
taxes—equal privileges and advantages for
Methodists, Dissenters, and Churchmen ; all should
be amalgamated as one people, all should sail in the
same boat. The present state of the Marriage Law
afforded great facilities for clandestine marriages.
Certain forms calculated to ensure publicity were
imposed on the clergy of the Established Church,
but priests could marry the members of their own
Church at any hour of the day or night, without
any registration. He wanted one law for Protes-
tants and Roman Catholics. He felt for the disabili-
ties of his Wesleyan and Dissenting brethren ;
and as a minister of one of the largest
parishes in Ireland, profiting daily by the pri-
vileges he enjoyed as a clergyman of the Estab-
lished Church, he was willing to share the advantages
with Dissenting ministers, and appeared therefore
on that platform as a disinterested advocate on
their behalf.

The Rev. Dr. KIRKPATRICK, a Presbyterian
Minister of high standing in this city, next ad-
dressed the meeting. He was glad to see the union
of all denominations on that platform for the
purpose of obtaining equal rights for all. The
Marriage Law which was passed 15 or 16 years
ago had been passed in a season of great public
excitement, when there was a great deal of bitter
feeling between the Established Church and the
Presbyterians. But since that time education and
the progress of enlightened opinion in the com-
munity had wrought a great change for the better,
and the people of all classes were in a capacity to
seek an improvement of the law upon sound prin-
ciples of civil and religious liberty. The Presby-
terians had privileges which the Wesleyans,
Independents, and Baptists did not possess, and of
which there was no reason that they should be
deprived. While Episcopalian clergymen were
free to marry all classes, Presbyterian ministers
coud not marry unless one of the parties was a
member of their own communion. Still they were
better off than their Dissenting brethren. With
the single restriction as to mixed marriages, Ro-
man Catholic priests enjoyed a freedom in this
respect granted to no other denomination. They
were met to discuss a great social question, of vast
importance to the best interests of the country.
They wanted to secure for all denominations legal
validity for the marriage contract, with preliminary
notices, publicity in the celebration, and correct
registration.
The Rev. Dr. URWICK, an Independent minister
of 35 years' standing in Dublin, pointed out the
evils of the Marriage Law of 1844. Before that
time the state of the Marriage Law in Ireland was
the worst possible. Any minister, whatever might
be his creed or character—come from what quarter
he might— could perform a valid marriage, without
notice or record, in any place, at any hour of the day
or night, This state of things led to the passing of an
' Act unworthy of the British Legislature, in viola-
lation of the principle of religious equality ; and he
wanted to know what the Independents, Baptists,
and Wesleyans had done to deserve the degrading
brand. He stood there for liberty and equality—
equal rights for all who bore true allegiance to the
Throne.

The Rev. T. SCOTT, of the Established Church, in
seconding the resolution, expressed his concurrence
in the views that had been presented by the pre-
vious speakers.
The Rev. R. MASSAROON, who said that he had
been a Wesleyan minister in Ireland for 50 years,
could testify from his own experience as to the per-
nicious operation of the Marriage Law. By it the
body to which he belonged had been degraded,
oppressed, trodden down. Degrading, painful,
awful results had flowed from the state of the law.
Wesleyans could not be married by their own be-
loved ministers; they must be united in wedlock by
the registrar, who noted on the register "Married
by me." The minister might be present and sign
the register, but only as a witness. If he performed
the ceremony without the registrar he would be
guilty of felony and be liable to be transported. On
one occasion he went to the chapel with a highly
respectable couple, persons of position in society,
after due notice. The registrar was not there ;
half-an-hour—an hour—an hour and a half passed,
and no registrar. The lady blushed deeply, then
became deadly pale. At length he (the minister)
ran to the other side of the town for the functionary
in question, who said that he had forgotten all about
it. On another occasion the registrar died the day
before a marriage, his son personated him, and
wrote, " Married by me." The marriage being null
and void ; the ceremony had to be repeated when
the discovery was made. Mr. Massaroon indignantly
complained that Wesleyans should be degraded by
being obliged to have their marriages published in
the poorhouse, which the present law required.
Why should he who never troubled the Poor Law
guardians be obliged to appeal in forma pauperis
at the most dignified period of a man's life, when
he was going to be married ? He felt that by the
law they were degraded, especially when he con-
trasted the position of the Wesleyans with the pri-
vileged position of the Roman Catholic priests. As
to the present Marriage Law, he would have it
abolished. It was like an old Irish jaunting-car,
the more you try to mend it the worse it gets.
The most important speech of the night was
delivered by the Rev. J. Macnaughton, who re-
presented the Presbyterians of Belfast as one of the
deputation. He described the four modes of per-
forming the marriage ceremony recognised by the
law—by the Episcopalians, who can marry all deno-
minations; by the Presbyterians, who can marry
only when one or both of the parties are members
of their own Church, and who must sign five or six
documents, as if the Legislature wished to create
facilities for blundering in their case ; by the regis-
trars, who marry not only infidels who object to
any religious ceremony, but Wesleyans, Indepen-
dents, and Baptists, who object to the ceremonies of
the Established Church and the Presbyterians ;
and by the priests, who if the parties belong to their
own church can marry without any restriction
whatever. It was disgraceful to the Legislature to
have passed such a law as the Act of 1844 ; but it
was almost equally disgraceful to those by whom
the degradation had been tamely endured. Why
should they submit to have their names read out
before the board of guardians ? It was a state of
things which could not, which must not, be borne
longer. Had the Independents and Baptists lost
the spirit of freemen ? Where was the old Puritan
blood that flowed in the veins of the heroic
founders of their churches ? Why do they not
agitate till they shake the country to
its centre, till they obtain equal privileges
with the rest of their fellow-citizens ? His own
Scottish blood was fired at the thought of their de•
. .

gradation, and of the evils which the infamous
marriage law inflicts upon society: It was a par-
tial enactment to meet certain evils, but inflicting
other evils still greater. The Lord Chancellor's
Bill, now before the House of Lords, is one of the
same character. It is simply meant to legalise mixed
marriages by Roman Catholic priests, brought in in
consequence of the Yelverton case. But neither in
that bill, nor in the Registration Bill of Mr. Card-
well, nor in the bill on the same subject brought in
by Lord Naas and Mr. Whiteside, is there a single
line designed to free Nonconformists from their
galling and insulting disabilities. Friends as the
Dissenters are of Liberal statesmen in England, re-
presented by so many able men in the House of
Commons, he (Mr. Macnaughton) could not under-
stand how their dearest interests are neglected and
overlooked. But if Parliament would not do themjustice he advised them to go to the foot of the
throne, and plead their cause with the Queen, who,
as a wife and mother and the most exemplary of
Sovereigns,
must sympathise with their grievances.
The meeting was addressed briefly by the Rev.
Robertson Scott, Mr. Edwaid Wright' LL.D., the
Rev. John Manley, and Mr. George Foley.
Resolutions in accordance with the tenour of the
speeches were passed unanimously.
The large assembly seemed to take a lively inte-
rest in the proceedings.

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