The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-05-20 00:00:00

STATE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH

The tables of mortality for the quarter ending the 31st
of March, 1845, have just been issued from the General
Register-office, London. The returns are obtained from
115 districts, comprising a population, according to the
census of 1841, of 6,578,912. It will be seen that Liver-
pool is among the places in which the mortality has dimi-
nished.

The season to which the return refers was remarkable
for its severity ; the temperature fell lower than had ever
before been observed and recorded in the neighbourhood
of the metropolis. The mortality was proportionably
high : 49,874 deaths were registered ; 43,958 had been
registered in the last quarter of 1844; and 38,784 in the
September quarter of that year. The increase of deaths
was, therefore, upwards of 11,000.
In the unhealthy countries of the world, the mortality
is highest in the hottest months, and this was the case
formerly in London ; but the greatest number of deaths
now invariably happens in the coldest quarter of the year.
Thus the average number of deaths in the March quarters
(45,484) of 1840-4 is 4,220 above the general quarterly
average (41,261) of the same five years 1810-4; but the
deaths in the first quarter of the present 3 ear were 49,874,
or 4,390 above the average of the March quarter of the
previous five years. It is true that the population in-
creased in the interval; but the increase of population
would not account for more than half the excess of deaths.
The mortality was below the average in the milder cli-
mate of the south-western parts of the island, and in the
coal districts of the north ; it was highest on the eastern
coast, in the metropolis, and North Wales.
In the city of Norwich 708 persons perished in the
three months out of a population of about 62,000. The
excessive mortality is accounted for in the notes ; 57
deaths from small-pox were registered in East Wymer,
36 in Conisford, 40 in Mancroft. The Registrar of Cos-
lany states that the average " is exceeded by about 100
deaths, principally from small-pox. No deaths have
occurred from small-pox after vaccination." (See the
Registrars'notes under Norwich.) Few of the victims
of small-pox had been vaccinated; vaccination had not
even been attempted in a great majority of cases ; and
thus, in one city, between 200 and 300 persons were suf-
fered to perish in three months ; others were blinded,
maimed, and deformed for life, through negligence of the
parents in the application of the protection discovered by
Jenner, and placed at the disposal of all by the legislature.
Other examples of the consequences of neglecting vacci-
nation will be found in the notes. Ashton-under-Lyne
is the only parish in which it is mentioned that the
" churchwardens and overseers have refused to carry out
the provisions of the act of 3 and 4 Victoria," to extend
the practice of vaccination, by contracting with medical
officers for the gratuitous protection of the poor. Sixty-
one funerals took place in Ashton town from small-pox.
In Jenner's Life, an instance is mentioned of the cost of
coffins, convincing the overseers of a certain parish of the
advantages of vaccination, after all the higher arguments
of humanity and justice had failed.
The high mortality was no doubt due in a great part to
the extreme coldness of the season ; but, as is judiciously
remarked by one of the Registrars of Stockport, " Great

as it is, there can be no question that the mortality would
have been greater, in so severe a winter, had not the im-
proved condition of the industrious classes enabled them
to be better clothed and fed."
In the metropolis, small-pox, scarlatina, and measels,
were epidemic; the deaths from diarrhoea and erysipelas
were above, those from typhus below, the average. 411
deaths from !looping cough were registered, which is 113
less than the average. The deaths from all pulmonary
diseases rose ; and 632 persons died of bronchitis ; 606
of asthma ; 1,296 of pneumonia. There was a marked
excess of deaths from scrofula, tabes mesenterica, cancer,
atrophy, malformation, apoplexy, delirium tremens, and
intemperance. 12 person-, labouring under diabetes,
died (the average is 6;) and it is worthy of remark, that
cold weather is always very fatal to this class of patients.
Districts in which the mortality was ABOVE the aver-
age of five March quarters : The five metropolitan dis-
tricts, Portsea Island, Northampton, Norwich, Kidder-
minster, Dudley, 'Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Aston,
Coventry, Nottingham, Stockport, West Derby, Black-
burn, Choriton, Manchester, Aston, Bradford, Merthyr
Tydfil, Holywell, and Anglesey.
Districts in which the mortality was meow the aver-
age of five March quarters : Cambridge, Liverpool,
Wigan, Prescot, Salford, Hull, and Pontypool.
The mean temperature of the 13 weeks at Greenwich
was 35 deg. 4 min. The temperature of the correspond-
ing week, on an average of 25 years, was 38 deg. 9 min.,
according to Mr. Henry's observations. The tempera..
ture of the first 4 weeks of January was from 1 deg. to
6 deg. above the average; from the close of January to
the end of March the mean temperature was 8 deg. below
the average; and in one week (March the 9th to 15th) it
was 29 deg. 1 min., or 13 deg. below the average. On
Wednesday morning, February 12th, a thermometer on
grass fell to 6 deg. below Zero; the thermometer on flax,
cleared of snow, was 12 deg. 5 min. below Zero, probably
a point lower than has ever been recorded in this climate
before. At the same time a thermometer on long grass
under snow was 26 deg.; showing, in a striking manner,
the protection snow affords vegetation against sudden ex-
tremes of temperature. The temperature of the air fell
in the night to 8 deg. 8 min.
The meteorological returns from other parts of the
kingdom, though not all made on a uniform plan, are
highly interesting ; and exhibit differences in the results
which could scarcely have been anticipated in the absence
of direct evidence.

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dence in public men was gone for the time; and
even when revolution at our very doors brought on

majority of the country could scarcely be brought to
make even the shadow of a fight in defence of our
old, and tried, and revered British Constitution. At
length, however, the startling declension from the
principles of that constitution displayed by the
Whig ministry of the Reformed Parliament, in their
measures, rallied the scattered friends of the mo-
narchy and the established institutions of the coun-
try. Still looked up to as able and honest, Sir Ro-
bert Peel wormed himself, by new professions, into

Conservative party—a thing of his own creation—
an emascul ited and heartless substitute for the old
Tory party—Sir Robert battled manfully and long
for the overthrow of the Whig-radical incubus which
had fastened itself, and was fattening, upon the vi-
tals of England's prosperity and greatness. That
party raised him to power. It placed him at the
head of government, with an amount of parliamen-
tary strennth nerfertiv imassAnhlp_ HP was in n

position to build up the shattered buttresses of the

enemies had made in its battlements—to strengthen
the foundations of the throne, the church, and the
liberties of his country. Alas ! he has done none

betrayal of Protestantism more g

ring than his first,

there is no confidenCe to be placed in statesnie-
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we looked up with hope, the great Protest
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a shattered, spiritless, powerless, host, united only
in one determination, viz., a fixed resolve to eject
from office and parliament, on the first practical

opportunity, a ministry anc

a party which

shamelessly and wickedly betrayed their trust.

This is and must be the course of the loyal Pro-
testants of England—the only course. We may be
told that it will be fraught with danger to the esta-
blished—alas ! we should say the remaining—insti-
tutions of the country. We reply that no danger

can arise greater than is to be feared from the con-
tinuance in office and power of the present faithless
party. We may have held up to us the frightful
picture, painted in dark distempered colours, of a
new era of Whig domination. We dare look that
picture in the face. It is the false friend whose
wound ever rankles most sorely in our flesh. It
was the dagger of. Brutus which reached the mighty
heart of Caesar. We can look without fear upon
the possible establishment of a Whig ministry; for
we know that there is a spirit abroad in the land,
and only wanting an occasion to call it forth to
action, which will palsy the hand which may be
raised to injure fatally any portion of what is left us
of the British constitution. We are content, then,
to abjure Sir Robert Peel and Conservatism, and
to rely upon England, upon the Truth, and upon
GOD who is over all.

The pressure upon our space this day incapaci-
tes us from giving, at the length which we could
have wished, a report of the proceedings of the
Liverpool Licensed Victuallers' Protection Society
on Friday last. We shall not, however, as upon
ordinary occasions is our practice, and that of other
journa'
ire , those

ists, pass over

RAILWAY COMMUNICATION BETWEEN LI-
VERPOOL AND PRESTON, VIA ORMSKIRK.
IMPORTANT MEETING AT THE LAST-NAMED
TOWN.

Yesterday, a highly respectable meeting of the land-
owners, tradesmen, and inhabitants generally, of Orms-
kirk and its vicinity, was held at the town-hall, " to take
into consideration the various railway projects of the
district as affecting the town and neighbourhood, and to
devise such means as might be thought expedient for ob-
taining the most efficient railway accommodation for the
town, and to adopt such steps as might be thought ne-
cessary for opposing those projects which might be deemed
injurious." A requisition to the Constable of Ormskirk.
Mr. Richard Martlew, requesting him to call the meeting
for these purposes (and with which he immediately com-
plied), was signed by the following gentlemen :—R. Bur-
chall, Robt. Wareing, Joseph Richardson* Edw. Hough-
ton, Thomas Kershaw, W. G. Tilsley, john Robinson,
'Wm. Owen, A. B. Goss, John Rosson, R. M. Marsden,
William H. Garside, William Leak, Thomas Nuttall,
Thos. Baxendale, Henry Bromley, Joseph Stoner, John
Fairhurst, John Bennett, John Arnold, T. M. Ashton,
Jas. Culshaw, Hugh Owen, Jas. Palmer, Joseph Lyon,
John Armstrong, Thos. Smithson Harper, John Owen,
R. Ha, kness, Thos. Brandreth, Wm. Johnson, Thomas
Kershaw Junior, Henry Mawdsley, William Welsby,
William Swift, Thomas Hall, Wm. Evans, P. MacMester,
Robert Wareing, M. Harrison, John Martin.
Amongst those present were—W. G. Unsworth, Esq.,
of Maghull ; Joseph Lion, Esq., of Aughton ; James
Culshaw, Esq., mineral surveyor; John Rosson, Esq..
of Moore Hall ; Thomas Kershaw, Esq., chemist, &c.;
Longton, Esq., Southport ; W. Welsy, Esq., Orms-
kirk ; James Palmer, Esq., solicitor ; Joseph Lyon, Esq.,
Rose Hill ; John Fairhurst, Esq.; the Rev. T. S. Har-
per, W. Leak, Esq.
Mr. MARTLEW, constable of the town, was called to
the chair, and the requisition being read,
Mr. PALMER rose to move the first resolution, which
with the others will be found in our advertising columns.
He stated that he had no individual interest in the direct
line which they had met to support, not being a share-
holder, and he therefore gave his opinion without bias,
excepting for the general interests of the locality to which
he was attached. He held in his band a printed letter
which had become public property, but which, he con-
ceived betrayed a bad and unfair feeling towards them.
It assumed much, and its facts were in reality falsehoods.
It set forth that the traffic on the North Union Line
would produce an income of £22,000 annually. It stated
that 45,000 passengers went by it; but the writer omitted
altogether to state what number might come by the di-
rect Ormskirk line, and not on the line of the writer of
that letter. No fewer than 38,000 passengers came from
Liverpool to Ormskirk, and if the direct line was con-
structed, it was easy to see which would have the pre-
ponderance. There were also 1,500 tons of goods by
Ormskirk which they entirely omitted; and there were,
moreover 13,000 tons that went from Liverpool to the Rib-
ble, which would certainly not fall into the N. Union line.
He felt assured that, in place of merely 1500 tons of goods
from Liverpool alone, they would, were the direct line
immediately constructed, have, including Southport and
the neighbourhood, generally 8500 tons; and he had do-
cuments to prove it. There was another melancholy
statement which their opponents had put forth. They
had called our direct line " a hopeless project—a wild
scheme," &c., and that it militated against existing inte-
rests. What was meant by existing interests ? Here we
proposed a direct line from Liverpool to Preston, with a
saving of twelve miles of distance, and numerous advan-
tages to the districts through which it passed. And why
had the North Union coupled themselves with the Man-
chester, and Bolton, and other lines, to form an amalga-
mation, but for self-interest, to our injury? They consi-
dered Ormskirk as nothing—to be kicked, in fact, out of
the market. if the line wished for by those present were
so contemptuous, why all this pains to knock it on the
head ? So far from being contemptuous, the kind of op-
position which it had excited showed the value of prose-
cuting it. (Cheers.) Ormskirk must yet rise. He re-
membered Preston when it had but one factory (Mr.
Horrocks's,) and that it was then generally thought
would be a failure. Now, what was it ? A flourishing
manufacturing town ! Ormskirk had even greater advan-
tages. It had abundance of coal which Preston had not
in its vicinity. It had abundance of water, which in
Preston had to be brought from a distance of 12 miles.
In Ormskirk too, and its neighbourhood, there was a
population able and ready to commence manufacturing
operations. And why should they not? Former at-
tempts bad been made, but the town did not then present
th 9. same advantages, and the parties who made these
attempts were almost bankrupts to begin with. There
could exist no question but that manufactures
would succeed. The probability was that a great traffic
would rise on a direct line between their town and Pres-
ton, and enter Liverpool—in hay, straw, and especially
potatoes, of the last of which immense quantities were
grown in their neighbourhood, many thousand bushels of
which were conveyed even into Yorkshire. The canals
did not offer the same regularity of transit as a direct rail-
way, for 'they were tedious and frequently frozen up.
`Anth the direct railroad they would have immediate traf-
-1 Preston, Blackburn, and Alpo—

_ Liverpool, 4 .- other ports
by rapid conveyance, while to reach some of them by
canals might occasionally occupy three weeks. Much of
the traffic would, in fact, necessarily go by their line of
railway—which would be but about 15 minutes from
Liverpool, or little more, and twenty-five minutes
from Preston, by the railway. As regarded the coaches,
those passing from or coming to Ormakirk or Preston,
could only go very early in the morning, or very late at
night. By the direct railway they would have the oppor-
tunity of going several times a-day. And what was the
effect to the farmers of the opposition shown to this line
T' has t- -tart wit' his