nuisances removed; and, as a consequence, there has not
been any fever in the place for about a year and a half.
The mortality of Cheshire and Lancashire was above
the average of these counties themselves. Their
population was 2,068,913, and their funerals 54,938. The
mortality of the West Midland division, including the
Staffordshire and Warwickshire coal districts, was
lower than this, but still too high—the population was
2,132,853, and the funerals 49,238. The registrar-
general observes—"The excess of sickness and death
in Lancashire is constant; in infancy, in adult age, and
in both sexes. Yet the land of a great part of the
county is high and salubrious, and the occupation of
the people has nothing in it essentially injurious. What
then, is wanting? Apparently only this one thing,—
that the leading men of Lancashire, animated by good-
will, should apply that skill and vigour which have been
so successful in the use of machinery and the production
of clothing for mankind, to the amelioration of the
social condition of the two millions of Englishmen around
them." The births registered in the autumn quarter,
ending December last, were 149,155. The births of the
whole year then ending, were 616,251. These are the greatest
numbers ever registered. The average annual rate of
births, in the ten years 1841-50, was 3·261 per cent.;
in the year 1851 the rate was 3·428 per cent. To every
100,000 of the population 3428 children were born in
1851, instead of 3261; and there was consequently an
excess of 167, or of 5 per cent. The excess appears to
have been distributed very generally over the whole
country. The deaths in the autumn quarter, having
been 99,248, and the births 149,155, the excess of
births was 49,907. This was the excess for England
and Wales alone—on a population of 17,977,000. In
the same period the emigration from the ports of the
whole United Kingdom, chiefly Irish, from Liverpool,
was 59,200 people. The marriages of the summer
quarter, ending September last, were 74,310; this was
fewer than in the preceding spring quarter, as is usually
the case; but it was also fewer than in the corresponding
summer quarter of 1850. Yet the marriage returns
of both 1850 and 1851 exhibit the excess which,
since 1750, has been invariably observed when the
substantial earnings of the people are above the average.
The registrar makes this comment on the general aspect
of the marriage returns since 1840. The rapid increase
of the marriages in England, from 29,221 in the
September quarter of 1840 to 37,155 in 1851, is partly
due to the increase of the population, and partly to the
increased disposition to marriage. In the September
quarter of 1841 and 1851, out of 100,000 persons, 365
and 409 married; consequently, out of the same number
of persons, 8 married in 1841 and 9 in 1851.
Delegates from the Metropolitan parishes met on the
11th, in the Marylebone court-house, to consider the
necessary steps for obtaining a Reform of the Sewerage
and Drainage Organisation of the Metropolis; Mr. J.
A. Nicholay in the chair. The bill introduced to the
House of Commons by Mr. Mowatt, last week, was
fully discussed, and the delegates resolved that it is in
nowise calculated to insure the efficient administration
of sewerage and drainage, while it would be heavily
burdensome on all the metropolitan districts. A committee
was appointed to memorialise Lord John Russell
accordingly.
The report of the joint Committee of the Benchers of
the Four Inns of Court, on the subject of Legal Education,
has been published. It proposes to establish five
professorships,—of Jurisprudence, Civil Law, Real
Property and Common Law, Equity, and Constitutional
Law; the institution of regular examinations; and that
the degree of barristers be refused to all who have not
attended the lectures and passed the examinations. It
proposes, also, that for legal education the year be
divided into three terms instead of four; commencing
and ending—1st November to 22nd December, 11th
January to 30th March, 15th April to 31st July. The
emoluments of the professors to be a salary of 300
guineas each, and a fifth share of the entrance-fees of
five guineas from each student.
PERSONAL NARRATIVE.
The Queen and royal family returned from Windsor
to Buckingham Palace on the 13th inst.
The Queen has granted the dignity of an Irish Barony
to Mr. Thomas Fortescue, of Ravensdale Park, county
Louth, with remainder to his brother Christopher, by
the title of Baron Clermont of Clermont and Dromisken
in the county of Louth.
Her Majesty has given apartments in Hampton Court
Palace to the widows of the gallant officers, Pennycuik
and Cureton, who fell in the Sikh war.
Sir Harry Smith has been recalled from the government
of the Cape of Good Hope, and General Cathcart
has been appointed his successor. General Cathcart
has sailed for the Cape.
Mr Henry Cartwright has been appointed
Superintendent of the Penal Settlement of British Guiana.
The Bishop of Durham has appointed his son, the
Rev. H. J. Maltby, M.A., rector of Egglescliffe, to the
canonry in Durham Cathedral, vacant by the death of
the Rev. Dr. Durell. This appointment does not
prevent Mr. Maltby retaining his living at Egglescliffe.
Lieutenant Pim has returned to England, having
failed in his endeavours to convince the Russian government
of the practicability of his project for searching
the Siberian coasts in quest of Sir John Franklin's
expedition.
The Marchioness Falletti di Barolo has married at
Rome, her librarian, the celebrated Silvio Pellico.
Dr. Charles Nicholson, speaker of the legislative
council of New South Wales, has received from her
Majesty the honour of knighthood.
Mr. Justice Patteson appeared for the last time in the
Court of Queen's Bench on Tuesday, the 10th instant.
At the close of the business, the Attorney-General, in
the name of the bar, delivered a farewell address, expressive
of the respect, esteem, and affectionate regard
entertained for the venerable judge by themselves and
the whole profession. He acknowledged his gratitude
in a reply full of feeling, and delivered with great
emotion. The strangers who crowded the court joined
in the general expression of sympathy.
Jenny Lind has been married at Boston to M. Otto
Goldschmidt, a young pianoforte player, who was in
London two or three seasons ago. There have been
many rumours of the "Swedish nightingale's"
marriage during her sojourn in America, but this last account
has been fully confirmed.
We understand that the office of Dean of the Arches,
vacant by the death of Sir Herbert Jenner Fust, has
been conferred on Sir John Dodson, Queen's Advocate.
Dr. Twiss has been nominated Queen's Advocate.
Obituary of Notable Persons
WALTER HUNTER, civil engineer, of Bow, Middlesex, died on
the 8th inst, aged 79 years. Unassisted, except by industry,
talent, and integrity, he worked his own way to distinction and
independence.
LORD DINORBEN died at Kinmel Park, on the 10th inst., in
Ins 85th year.
ROBERT BLACKWOOD, ESQ., one of the firm of the Messrs.
Blackwood and Son, the eminent publishers in Edinburgh, died
on the 14th inst., in the 44th year of his age.
MADAME VON KOTZEBUE, the widow of the author of "The
Stranger" and "Pizarro," who was assassinated at Mannheim
by the student Sand, died at Heidelberg on the 4th inst., at the
age of 73.
WILLIAM THOMPSON, ESQ., of Belfast, the naturalist of
Ireland, died in London on the 17th inst. He had come to
London to arrange with the Council of the British Association
for the Advancement of Science, for their meeting in Belfast in
the summer.
THE RIGHT HON. SIR HERBERT JENNER FUST died on the 20th
inst., in his 75th year.
Colonel GRAYDON, K.H., of the Royal Engineers, died at
Montreal, on the 27th ult., after a service of nearly fifty years.
He was at the capture of Martinique, in 1809, and Guadaloupe
in 1810.
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