The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-12 00:00:00

THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

(From the Eegistrar-Generars Weekly Return.)
In the week that ended on Saturday, February 8, 4,831
births and 3,088 deaths were registered in London and in
thirteen other large towns of the United Kingdom. The
annual rate of mortality was 25 per 1,000 persons living.
The annual rate of mortality last week was 23 per 1,000
in London, 20 in Edinburgh, and 32 in Dublin ; 28 in
Bristol, 21 in Birmingham, 20 in Liverpool, 29 in Man-
chester, 26 in Salford, 24 in Sheffield, 26 in Bradford, 21
in Leeds, 20 in Hull, 34 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and 29
in Glasgow. The rate in Vienna was 33 per 1,000 during
the week ending the Ist instant, when the mean tempera-
ture was 9.8 deg. Fahrenheit lower than in the same week
in London, where the rate was 23.

In London the births of 1,162 boys and 1,235 girls, in all
2,367 children, were registered in the week. In the corre-
sponding weeks of ten years, 1.858-67, the average number,
corrected for increase of population, is 2,301. The deaths
registered in London during the week were 1,304. It was
the sixth week of the year ; and the average number of
deaths for that week is, with a correction for increase of
population, 1,530. The deaths in the present return are
less by 163 than the estimated number. The animal rate
of mortality was 22 per 1,000 in West London, 23 in North
London, 23 in Central London, 23 in East London, and 22
in South London.

At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean height
of the barometer in the week was 29'937 in. The baro-
metrical reading increased from 29'51in. at the beginning
of the week to 30'25in. on Tuesday, 4th February. The
mean temperature of the air in the week Was 41.2 deg.,
which is 2'9 deg. above the average of the corresponding
week in fifty years (as determined by Mr. Glaisher). The
highest day temperature was 59'0 deg., on Monday, 3rd
February. The lowest night temperature was 31'1 deg.,
on Tuesday, 4th February. The entire range of tempe-
rature in the week was th -efore 19.8 deg. The mean of
the highest temperature of the water of the Thames was
42'1 deg. ; that of the lowest was 40.8 dew.

Mr o IV. F. Cowper, 111. P., Fifa Conainissionii of Woiks
in the late Government, 'nits been speaking at the Hartley
Institute, Southampton, on technical education. By this
expression lie meant the teaching of those elementary prin-
ciples of science which were involved in the ordinary pro-
cesses of skill and labour, and the application of science to
the work generally carried on in our manufactories. He
answered various objections which had been urged against
imparting this kind of education to working men, pointing,
by way of example, to the numerous science schools on
the Continent, and remarked that, although in this country
we had two hundred science schools, unfortunately they
were of an elementary character, where a smattering only
of science was taught.

The intelligence from Cork almost reads like that which
might be expected from a city in a state of siege. Three
policemen, suspecting that two men who were dodging
their footsteps intended assassination, awaited their ap-
proach. The would-be murderers advanced to within a
few yards of the constaNes, and one of the twain coolly
pulled out a revolver, and discharged four barrels at the
guardians of the public peace. These despicable villains
arc invariably bad shots, and the policemen stood the
fire unhurt, :.Ithough one ball whistled within half an
i7ich of a constable's head. The police had no firearms,
and the fellows escaped. Two men, named O'Brien and
Eddy, wera subsequently arrested on suspicion of having
formed the attacking party.

Other items of Cork news are to the effect that the
house of one Mr. Hugo has been attacked by three men,
who demanded arms, and obtained a gun. A night or two
ago, Mr. Hilliard, a book-keeper, was-returning home near
Sundays-well, Cork, when he noticed a man:before him on
the footpath, who, as he approached, sprang into the road
and presented a revolver at his head. The night was clear.
After staring into Mr. Hilliard's face, and seeing that he
was not a detective, —le stranger returned the revolver
into his pocket and made off. Large crowds gather
outside the police-station in which the captured Fenian,
Mackay, is confined. The police make occasional charges,
and the consequence is that the mob become exasperated,

especially if any of their number happen to get wounded.
Mounted and foot police patrol the streets in companies.

The Dublin grand jury having found true bills against
Mr. Pigott, of the Irishman, for publishing seditious
libels, the trial is to take place before Mr. Justice Fitz-

Gerald. This arrangement is objected to by the Star,
which says : " The processions were declared illegal by a
late decree of the Privy Council of which Mr. Fitzgerald
is a member. Why, then, is a case which turns entirely
on the legality of his own act to be sent before Mr.
Justice Fitzgerald for trial?" To this it may be replied
that the offence for which Mr. Pigott is indicted has
nothing whatever to do with the funeral processions, and
that Mr. Justice Fitzgerald cannot individually be held
responsible for the acts of the Privy Council in its col-
lective capacity. A Privy Councillor attends the sittings
of that august body when he is summoned, and not at his
sole will and pleasure.

The Telegraph, while commending the " respectable
enthusiasm" of Lord Ranelagh's observations on the volun-
teers, wants to know how he would supply the defects
which he denounces. Why does not his lordship present
to the country a plan for the effective organisation of the
volunteers? These are very fair questions to put. A
man who pulls anything to pieces ought to be prepared
with a substitute.

If one may judge from the letters which appear in
the morning papers, public opinion in the matter of the
Speke mystery seems decidedly to be to the effect that
Mr. Speke was murdered. " A." writes to the Daily
News: "I have read a great many hypotheses in the
London newspapers attempting to solve the mystery
which surrounds the disappearance of the Rev. Mr. Speke.
Except the one at once suggested to Mr. Speke's own
friends—viz., that he was murdered in Birdcage-walk—all
the others appear to me to be quite untenable. . . The
only chance of obtaining a clue to the murder, if it
be a murder, is through one of the actors in it. It was
thus that Thuggee in India was ultimately discovered and
suppressed. A free pardon to one of the accomplices who
may inform should be offered, not merely fur this murder,
but for all previous murders in which he may have
taken part with the gang." " Penang Lawyer," in the
Times, tells how his son was jostled by a rough-looking
fellow in Victoria-street, Westminster, about four o'clock on
one of the dark days last week. He (the writer's son) took
at first no notice, but had not gone far when two other
low-looking fellows came out of one of the bye-streets, and
were about to surround him, when he planted his back
against the railings, and, raising a stout stick, declared
that he would strike anyone who laid a hand on him.
This cowed the rascals, who thereupon allowed him to
pass.
- - -

Captain Sherard Osborn, RN.,read a paper on Monday
evening to the Royal Geographical Society on the explora-
tion of the North Polar region. He commenced by
maintaining that it was desirable in a national and naval
point of view to explore the area around the North Pole.
because such explorations were schools of enterprise am
adventure for our seamen. There were three routes 1)
which the polar area could be reached— by SpiLzbergen,
by Behring's Straits, and by Baffin's Bay. lle supported
the last-na,me3. Though it was important to follow up
the Gulf Stream, " that mystt:rious, warm river of water
flowing through the wastes of ocean to which we owed
our immunity from the paralysing rigour of a Labrador
winter," yet he submitted that wherever we penetrated
the polar area we should strike upon the G ulf Stream
in some shape or other ; and our object being t,
explore, not, as yet, to perfect scientific knowledge, we
might leave it until we were sure of the success of the
expedition. German and French geographers, too, had
bad their attention called to the matter, and in the spring
of 1869 we should see the French exploring Behring's
Straits on the one hand, and the Germans trying to find
I a Pular Sea somewhere between Nova Zembla and Green-
land on the other. Surely Englishmen (urged Captain
Osborn) would feel with him that we should not be
behindhand in Baffin's Bay and Davis's Straits. The
gallant captain concluded with a history of the explora-
tions of the bay brought up to the present time.

Sir Roderick Murchison, who presided at this meeting,
mentioned incidentally that it was the intention of tile
Admiralty to reward Mr. Young for having so successfully
conducted the Livingstone search expedition. He would
be advanced to the rank of first gunner, and be presented
with a life appointment in the coastguard, worth £2OO
a year. He would further receive a present of £5OO.

. N. very noisy meeting has just been held at Manchester,
convened in the usualmanner by the Mayor, on replisition,
to consider the subject of the Irish Church. A resolution
was moved to the effect that the lamentable disaffection
now existing in Ireland made it incumbent upon Parlia-
ment to give its immediate attention to the subject of the
Irish Church. Dr. Garrett moved as an amendment that the
meeting declined to pronounce an opinion on the subject.
Mr. Jacob Bright, M.P., amidst considerable interruption,
supported the resolution. He was of opinion that if the
majority of the people of the United Kingdom had their
will, the Irish Church, as a political institution, would not
be allowed to exist. The Mayor put the amendment, and

it was carried by about two to one ; the resolution was
therefore lost.

TWO PERSONS SUFFOCATED BY CHARcOAL. —A
shocking case of suffocation by charcoal lately occurred at
the village of Newstead, near Nottingham. A man
named Wm. Green, of Blidworth, and Herbert Godfrey,
a youth of 16, belonging to the same village, were engaged
in the manufacture of charcoal in a small hut on the
estate. Two men, named Green and Phillips, entered the
hut and found the two quite dead. They bad ventured
to sleep while the charcoal was burning, and had been
suffocated.

THE PROPERTY OF MARRIED WOMEN. -A report
nay been presented to the weekly meeting of the Social
Science Ass,ciation on the laws relating to the property
and maintenance of married women. The chair was taken
by Sir Erskine Perry. A memorial was some time ago
presented to the council upon the subject, and it was
referred to the committee for consideration. Mr. Frederic
Hill now read the report, which, after referring to the
labours of a former committee, recommended, with two
or three slight alterations, the introduction into Parlia-
ment of the bill formerly brought before the House of
Commons by Sir Erskine Perry. The chief provisions
of this measure were that the act of marriage shall not
confer any title to real or personal estate ; that a mar-
ried woman shall be capable of holding, alienating, and
bequeathing property, and of suing and being sued as if
she were a femme sole; that the earnings of a married woman
in any occupation carried on by her separately from that
of her husband shall beleng to herself ; that when a mar-
ried woman dies intestate, her husband shall have the
game share of her personal estate as such married w unan
would have of the personal estate of her husband if he
died intestateenrtoenrhienrtoowl i ; and that a married woman shall be liable
u
contracts, and upon those which she may
faertieonwas jointlytt nwnittih,inh..e in r
thea Act
husband. Another
stipu
l i
with ante-imptial 'settleiwnts and a,,re,m cuts
The memorial which the committee had considered c tilled
to compel a
husband to assist in the support of hi,T:vainfe:
al.tention also to the frequent want of
and cliiLlren
and upon ~111111 ..11;.ce.v.Nlaulguiatabnl
e
by his own exertion:-±,
d
evidence had been given by Mr. 'l'raill
rtehle)orLt,onaddoiviorcnaateg(iistritaatesv.iew.A.alr.ailidlillt,,ecaofintemr
recommendations the
t
_ _

some length, and then concluded by moving a resolution,
the effect of which was a general concurrence of the
meeting in the report. A discussion followed, in which
Mr. G. W. Hastings, the secretary of the association,
Mr. Davy, Mr. Rutson, Mr. Shaw Lefevre, M.P., Mr.
Chisholm Anstey, and Sir Erskine Perry took part. The
resolution was passed, and also a vote of thanks to the
chairman,