The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-02-13 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THE EDITOR OF TILE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
Sir,-I am often amused at the long and prosy debates
[ in your Deck Committee and Town Council, and cannot
avoid telling you t hat you arc a set of drones in Li verpool—
a generation behind the age. You have not yet learnt
the "go ahead" system, as we have done in Cheshire,
where we do things while you are talking about them.
Only look at the fudge and humbug there has been about
your dock extension. Months have elapsed since your
Dock Committee found out that they wanted 40 or 50 acres
of additional dock room, and your newspapers have been
filled with debates, pros and cons, personal vituperation,
and long letters, which I am tired of reading. Your
Dock Committee, like a parcel of noodles, let the land at
the south shore slip out of their fingers, which everybody
with any brains knew they must re-purchase at no distant
period : and it is a great pity it was not in the hands of
our commissioners, who would have got up the price to
five guineas a yard before the deck people had got through
half their talk. Look at us, I say. We want 29 acres of
land to finish out our grand park, which, when it is
finished, will whip "the Regent's" like a flash of light-
ning. Our commissioners meet—after dinner always.
(I wish your council would do the some, because in wino
weritas.) Well, it belongs to the chairman. He declares
that he has had £l2OO an acre bid for it, and wont take
less. He walks out of the chair; a temperance man, in
Pensylvania drab, gets up to object. Bowie knives are un-
known at Birkenhead, but bowie tongues are up.
Samuel is down in no time. The commissioners di-
vide, and the chairman has hardly time to take a pinch of
snuff outside, before £35,000 has changed hands, and our
friend Will (we always call him Will on this side of the
water) mounts the chair again ; and the rest of the busi-
ness is done in no time. "Go it, ye cripples" of Liver-
pool, and be content to learn a lesson from the Commis-
sioners of Birkenhead. I !

As to your stop-gap, Alderman Evans, if you don't
turn him out next November (and if you do, it will break
the old man's heart), make him a Birkenhead Commis-
sioner, and we'll grind him over agaiu. At present he is
more fit to legislafe for the reign of George the First than
for the seventh of Victoria. Then, again, only look at
the talk you had about your Assize Courts. Why, we
get plans and go to work like moonshine. The only thing
we have to consider about our Town-hall is, whether we
should place it in Hamilton•square or on the top of Oxton
Hill; because, as in seven years Birkenhead will reach to
Woodchurch, some people think that by the time it is
up it will be more in the centre of the city at Oxton than
where the commissioners have chosen ; but we shall settle
it in quick sticks when next we meet. By the bye, Mr.
Editor, let me tell you a secret. It is said tbat land be.
tween Hoylake and the Leasowe Lighthouse will be worth
£1,200 an acre before long ; and that some of the com-
missioners who have been boring in " the Pool " have
discovered a gold mine at no great depth, which is to be
the making of the docks. Everything flourishes at Birken-
head, and everything gets up here. 1 should advise you
Liverpool slow coaches to apply for an act to amalgamate
yourselves with us railroad people, and merge your Cor-
poration (poor creatures!) into the Commissioners of
Birkenhead.—l am, sir, your obedient servant,

EBENEZER JONES.

Woodside, February 9, 1844.

QUARTERLY TABLE OF THE MORTALITY,
FOR THE END OF 1843.

The authentic Quarterly Return, ending December
30-1, 1843, is now before us. It is derived from 114 dis-
tricts (subdivided into 571 registrars districts) ; 33 of the
districts are in the metropolis, and the remaining 81 corn-
prize, with some agricultural parishes, the principal towns
and cities of England. At the last census (June, 1841)
the whole population of these was 6,534,5 n, or nearly
4-10ths of the total population. The average annual
number of deaths registered in the 114 districts was
163,193, or 47 per cent. of the total deaths registered an-
nually in England. The deaths registered in the autumn
quarter of 1843, were 42,263: while the average number
in the five autumns of 1838 to 42 inclusive was 40,683. The
population increased about five per cent. every three
years from 1831-41, and as it is probable that the in-
crease continued down to 1843, the deaths of the autumn
of that year would, compared with the rate of mortality
in previous years, be five per cent. more numerout..
The deaths in the provincial districts were 28,525, the
uncorrected average number for autumn being 28,827.
The mortality was therefore, in the aggregate, considera-
bly below the average.
The mortality in the Metropolis was above the aver-
age; the deaths were 13,738, or 1,923 more than 11,815,
the average of the five previous autumns. After a cor-
rection for the increase of population, the excess is 1,368
deaths. The most fatal diseases were small pox, measles,
and especially scarlatina ; diarrhoea, dysintery, and cho-
lera,na r
e usual.eoo s
considerably e b
ldye
aboveatls i from
the
average, as were those from diseases of the lungs. Fewer
disea sweeoref
violent and sudden deaths were registered than usual.
alsothe nervous more
fastyasit system

Amongst the districts in which the mortality was higher
than the autumn average, are West Derby, (near this
town,) Wigan, and Chorlton. Amongst those in which
it was lower, we find Chester, Liverpool, Prescot, Man-
chester, Salford, Ashton, Sheffield, Huddersfield, and
Leeds.

The following is a synopsis of the mortality, as exhi-
bited by these tables, in

LIVERPOOL.
The population in 1811 was 223,054; the average deaths
quarterly in the five years 1838-42, was 1875, and the
quarterly average for the five quarters of these years, 1962.
The. deaths in the autumn quarter of 1843, ending 31st
December, a ere 1855.; a decrease on 1962, (the average of
the previous autumn quarter,} of 107.

REGlSTRARSDHlsoTwßatcrdTs.s,tAresett:_EßSeventeen ab o RETURNS.
above
iast
Great
quarter,
including 16 cases of small•pox-5 only having been
vaccinated.
St. Thomas.—Fifteen fewer deaths than in the corres-
ponding quarter previous year, and 45 less than 1841.
Principal diseases fever, measles, pneumonia, phthisisis,
and bowel complaints.
Mount-pleasant.—The deaths exceed those of the former
quarter by 50, and those of the last corresponding quar-
ter by 41. The most prevalent diseases have been con-
vulsions, inflammation of the lungs, dropsy, fever,
asthma, consumption, measles, and hoop'ng cough.
Islington.—A decrease this quarter as compared with the
corresponding quarters of 1811 and 1842, of 14 per
cent.

WEST DERBY.—Township of West Derby.—An increase
this quarter, attributed to the unusually damp and va-
riable state of the weather. Chief causes of death—
diseases of the lungs, convulsions, childrens' diseases
generally, and measles.
Great Crosby.—An increase of seven over last quarter,
though only three epidemic cases.
Toxteth-park.—A further increase of deaths this quarter
(19) as compared with the previous quarter. The mor-
tality in the whole district (of West Derby) is above
the average. Amongst the deaths are (during the quar-
ter) from consumption, 40: inflammation of the lungs
and chest, 23, and diarrlicea, 15.

In Blackburn the deaths within the quarter were under
the average number ; and in Preston the deaths were 29
fewer than in the same quarter of 1842.

BRISTOL.—The number of deaths were considerably
above the average of the two last years, chiefly from the
prevalence of scarlatina; and, under this head, we find
the following extraordinary remark by one of the regis-
trars :—" The practice in Bristol of keeping persons so
long after death, tends during the prevalence of an epi-
demic, to increase the number of deaths. If a person
die, say on rhursday, the body is invariably kept till
the Sunday week following, and this frequently when
there is only only one room for the living and the dead,
and during the quarter, in two or three instances, two
have died in a family from the causes named."—[This
practice, as well as that (still prevalent in our town) of
frequent interments in church-yards already filled to
repletion, and in the middle of great thoroughfares,
demands, we think, immediate legislative interference.
—ED. L. S.]

"The Chester Courant says :—" We are delighted to find
that the project, which we last week advocated, for im-
proving the navigation of the river Dee, and the port and
harbour of Chester, by the construction of a ship canal,
and the formation of docks, has been favourably enter-
tained, not only by some of our fellow citizens, and coun-
try gentry, but also by several merchants of Liverpool.
CONSPIRACY OF THE MANCHESTER COTTON SPIN-
NERS AGAINST THE LIVERPOOL COTTON BROKERS.—
The recent advance in the price of cotton at Liverpool
has excited considerable apprehension amongst the cot-
ton spinners of Manchester and the neighbourhood, not-
withstanding the advance that has taken place in the price
of manufactured cloths. A meeting on the subject was
held at Manchester, on Saturday, when not less than 500
individuals were present. Mr. Robert Gardner, who had
called them together, took the chair. He suggested the
working of only five days per week, and not to light up
the mills from the 19th or 26th of this month, and that
those Manchester men who had large stocks of cotton,
should sell, at the present prices, to those who were
without, in order to prevent the latter going into the Liv-
erpool market, and giving higher prices. Mr. Edmund
Ashworth said that the present speculation was owing to
some of the London bankers and money lenders, whose
circulars they had seen, offering to advance money for in-
vestment in cotton, if they could only find responsible
parties willing to make purchases ; and the payments were
made through orders upon Liverpool bankers. There was
a class of men called brokers, in Liverpool, who stood
between the importers and the manufacturers, who had a
direct interest in encouraging this spirit of speculation.
There had been many schemes suggested for doing away
with the evil, but it was quite clear that nothing could be
done unless a sufficient number of the manufacturers were
to unite together for the purpose. Cotton belonging to
Manchester men was imported into Liverpool and there
sold ; but it had been suggested that it should be brought
to Manchester and there sold to the consumers, and that
the trade should be kept from Liverpool during the next
three or four months; and that the Manchester cotton
should not go into the hands of the Liverpool brokers—
(cheers)—and the people of this neighbourhood would
have the satisfaction of knowing that their money went
into the pockets of theii own friends rather than into the
hands of the brokers, bankers, and money-lenders of
London and Liverpool. Mr. A. Buckley and Mr. S. L.
Behrens also spoke. Mr. G. R. Chappell denounced the
present mode of paying the Liverpool cotton brokers,
which made it the interest of the brokers to rob the man-
ufacturers. There were some brokers who were excep-
tions to the generality of their class, and were honourable
men ; but such was the tendency of the present mode of
paying them for purchasing cotton. Some resolutions
were passed, and a committee was appointed to mature a
plan of action, and report.