able-bodied persons capable of getting their own living!
Besides these deaths from the great epidemic, 115,000
die annually, on an average, of preventable diseases;
while 11,419 die by violence. Comparing the killed in
nine great battles, including Waterloo—4740—with the
number killed by cholera in London in 1848-'49—14,139
—we find a difference of 9399 in favour of war. In
cholera visitations, 12 per cent, sometimes 20 per cent.
of the medical men employed, died. The London
missionaries die as fast as those in foreign countries,
and there are some districts in London which make the
Mission Society ask themselves whether they have a
right to send men into them. From the returns of
twelve unions it is found that 3567 widows and orphans
are chargeable to the cholera of 1848-'49; entailing an
expenditure of £121,000. in four years only.

The charter of the New Wellington College has been
published. It recites that upwards of £100,000 has
been subscribed to found a college for the education of
the children of deceased military officers who have
borne commissions either in the Royal Army or the
East India Company's service; and it appoints as
Governors of the College, Prince Albert, the Duke of
Cambridge, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Duke of
Buccleuch, the Duke of Northumberland, the Duke of
Wellington, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Marquis
of Salisbury, the Marquis of Anglesey, the Marquis of
Dalhousie, the Earl of Derby, the Earl of Aberdeen,
the Earl of Ellenborough, the Earl of Ellesmere, Lord
John Russell, Viscount Hardinge, Viscount Gough,
the Bishop of London, Lord Seaton, Lord Raglan, Mr.
Sidney Herbert, Sir James Graham, Mr. Spencer
Walpole, Sir Howard Douglas, Sir Edmund Antrobus,
Sir James Weir Hogg, Sir Alexander Woodford, Mr.
Henry Richard Cox, Mr. Peter Richard Hoare, and the
Reverend George Robert Gleig. This corporation is
empowered to hold property to the annual value of
£15,000; and to do all matters appertaining or incidental
to a body corporate. The Queen will be the Visitor of
the College. Every Governor hereafter elected by the
body to fill vacancies must be approved of by a Secretary
of State. The Duke of Wellington, the Commander-in
chief, the Master of the Ordnance, and the Secretary-at-
War, for the time being, will be always Governors.
The charter is dated the 13th December, 1853.

Attention has been drawn to the Excessive Mortality
in Glasgow during the Past Year, by the publication
of tables prepared by Mr. William Patrick, the Warden
of Churchyards, and from the comments on them by
Dr. Strang, the Chamberlain. There were no fewer
than 14,312 deaths, and 976 infants still-born, making
a total of 15,288. Of these 7046 were children under
five years. Assuming the population at 385,000, this
mortality amounts to 1 in 26·9—a higher rate than in
any year since 1847. The average for the past five
years was 1 in 34·8. It is remarked that the number
of pauper burials is below the corrected proportional
average; from which it is inferred that destitution has
not been the cause of deaths. In 1849 there were
4042 pauper burials, in 1853 only 2884.

Eggs of Hens, Ducks, and other Poultry, commonly
eaten in this kingdom are in quantity almost incredible.
The aggregate number cannot be less than 1,500,000,000,
and the value, at the lowest prices, three millions
sterling. Ireland produces nearly 500,000,000 eggs.
The London and North Western Railway Company
frequently receive at their station m Liverpool,
in one day, from Ireland alone, upwards of one million
of eggs, and forward them into the manufacturing
districts. Last year 10,724,170 eggs were imported. In
1851 the number was 7,175,076.

The Crœsus, screw Steam-ship, sailed from Southampton
for Melbourne on the 11th inst. She is a new ship,
2500 tons burden, and is the finest steamer that has ever
left England for Australia. She took out 140 passengers,
800 tons of cargo, and about 10,000 letters and
newspapers. She has on board 1400 tons of coal, which it is
expected will be sufficient for her passage out, and for
part of her homeward voyage. The officers, crew, and
servants number about 120 persons. She has an immense
quantity of live stock and stores sufficient for her
extended voyage. Captain Hall, the Commodore of the
General Screw Company's fleet, commands the Crœsus.

During the last year 35 vessels Left the Port of
Southampton bound for Australia with Government Emigrants.
The tonnage of these vessels was 27,702. The number
of emigrants they took out equalled 9,551 statute adults.

The National Public School Association held a
conference at Manchester on the 18th inst. Mr. Alexander
Henry presided, and Mr. Milner Gibson and Mr. Cobden
were present. The latter was the chief speaker. Mr.
Samuel Lucas congratulated the meeting on the position
the question had gained; and he moved the first
resolution, which declared the inadequacy of existing means
of instruction, and that funds for schools should be raised
by local rates, and controlled by a local committee. Mr.
Cobden made his speech in seconding this resolution.
People (he observed) say the Association ignore the vast
number of school-houses already built: but they never
do that. Why, government has paid a million sterling
out of the taxes for building schools during the last
twenty years—the schools have not been built by the
voluntary system; and the Association has always
contemplated making use of them. It is said that the
voluntary system has educated the people: "I will call
it the involuntary system," said Mr. Cobden. "The
voluntary system has not educated the people; and
there is one bold staring fact which Mr. Lucas has
mentioned—the fact that in 1850, 33 per cent. of the men
married in this country, and 46 per cent. of the women
married in this country could not sign their names to the
marriage-register, but were obliged to make their marks:
there is that one fact in answer to the assertion that the
voluntary system has educated the people. And when
you hear these astounding statistics, bear in mind what
they mean. They do not mean that any proportion of
the higher and middle classes cannot write their names.
The undergraduates of Oxford and Cambridge do not
make their marks when they get married; your
professional men and merchants, and the great bulk of the
middle-class and shop-keepers, who have dealings with
trade, and have bills to sign, don't make their marks
because they are unable to write their names, and their
sons are educated sufficiently to sign their names to the
marriage-register; so that, when you say that 33 per
cent. of the young men who get married cannot write
their names, it means that a great deal more than half
of the labouring population of this country are unable to
write their names." The labouring classes are, indeed,
so utterly wanting in education, that the mechanics'
institutes are compelled to become schools of elementary
instruction. "I want secular instruction to be separated
from religious instruction, because I want secular
instruction to be improved. It is quite impossible for the
schoolmaster to do justice to secular instruction if he is
to give religious instruction as well. Secular instruction
is quite enough for him, and you have no right to ask
him to fulfil the duties of a religious teacher; and it is
idleness on the part of the teachers of religion to seek for
such an evasion of their own duties .... If you
separate secular from religious education, you will do
what you have done in every other pursuit of life—
improve the quality by a division of labour. And where do
I find my example to prove it? We have now a few
secular schools; there have been a few schools
established owing to the munificence of an individual—Mr.
Ellis; the schools called the Birbeck schools in
London, and a school in Edinburgh also, the
Williams's School. Well, now, I have seen these
schools; they don't profess to give religious
instruction; they don't profess to oppose religious
instruction; but they say, we profess only to give
secular instruction here, and you must get your religious
education elsewhere. Well, but there cannot be a
doubt that the quality of the instruction given in those
schools is vastly superior to that ordinarily given in other
schools for working-people."—Several other gentlemen
addressed the Conference. The resolutions agreed to
declared that schools, to be permanently satisfactory,
must not confer sectarian advantages; that "industrial
schools" must form part of a system of public
instruction; that a permissive bill should be introduced
and pressed forward in Parliament; and that provision
should be made in the bill to include existing schools.
The public meeting in the evening, which, as is usual
on these occasions, followed the Conference, was held