The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1843-01-20 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

LIVERPOOL, 1840. No of Average age deaths. at death. 137 Gentry, professional men, and families 1,738 Tradesmen anti families 5,598 Labourers, mechanics, ce. Here, by comparison, it will be seen, that the life of the wealthy cotton spinner of Manchester, lasts, on an average, only thirty-eight years ; that of the Liverpool " merchant prince" averages only thirty-five, whilst that of the Rutland country gentleman is prolonged for more than half a century. The Liverpool or Manchester trademan's life is about half as long as that of the Rutland farmer, and the child of the poorest agricultural labourer, and under the most unfavourable circumstances, may calculate on more than two such lives as that to be expected by the children of the poor artisan of Liverpool. Having now proved from documentary evidence these startling statements, it will naturally be asked, how is it that all this is allowed, and has been allowed, for so long? How is it that the same public, which would " clamour against the destruction of a few uncivilized savages some three or four thousand miles off," will remain a quiet and apathetic spectator, whilst England is committing national suicide, by alallowing 80,000 of her children to die annually of diseases, a large proportion of which is proved to be preventible ; and it is not only by lessening the duration of life that these noxious causes operate, but also by destroying the energies of the labouring classes from frequent though not necessarily fatal sicknesses. In Liverpool, as we are informed by Dr. Duncan, one in twenty-five of the population is annually attacked with fever alone. Now, this being the case, and supposing the average duration of the illness to be only one month, what a loss of productive labour is always " on the shelf;" for whilst the poor man lies on his sick-bed, his family must live; and when he recovers he finds, perhaps, that his house has been stripped of its furniture to support himself and children, aided perhaps by a scanty mite from the parish. In future articles I shall endeavour to point out to you the causes of such a melancholy sacrifice of life, more especially as referrible to Liverpool. Happily for the health of the rising generation, our town council has wisely procured the enactment of a measure well calculated to reduce the mortality amongst us, but particularly amongst the denizens of the cellars, courts, and alleys, which disgrace the town ; and as the committee, I believe, will sit weekly, it will be the bounden duty of any inhabitant who may be able to point out to that committee anything which may require tlie interference of the authorities. But it is of little avail that others help unless w e ourselves put our shoulders to the wheel; therefore, it shall be my duty in future articles to point out to you, my operative friends, how you may advantageously help yourselves ; for although you cannot, as it has been aptly said, add a cubit to your height, or a day to your life, vet you may take it off, which comes to the same thing. You may, by neglect of proper means, see your family dropping off one by one, and yourselves prematurely aged and diseased. For the present I take leave of you, with a full intention of having more to say to you on this subject next week.—S'our's, &c.,  MEDICUS ACHATES Liverpool, January 17th, 1843.  We are happy to inform our readers, says the Worcester Herald, that there is now no doubt of the funds necessary to effect the long wanted improvements in the Severn being forthcoming. This will be the result of a determination on the part of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal Company, decided upon at a special meeting held on Monday last, Lord Hatherton in the chair, for the purpose of taking steps for providing the whole of the funds necessary to carry out the entire of the works : 382 out of the 700 shares into which the canal property is divided were represented at the meeting, and it was unanimously resolved to apply to parliament .n the ensuing session for power to raise any sum of money lot exceeding £lBO,OOO, which shall be required to improve he navigation of the Severn, and for power to advance the ;ame to the commissioners for effecting the improvement.  "