POOR LAW RELIEF.-The total number of Paupers in receipt of relief on Jan. 1, 1856, in 624 unions and parishes, was 876,655, being an increase over the preceding year of 26,202 in the same number of unions: the returns from 620 unions only were given in our last return. Of adult able-bodied paupers relieved, exclusive of vagrants, there were 152,174, of which number 52,653 were widows. Of the gross number of able-bodied paupers, 23,496 were in the receipt of in-door relief. The increase was large in Lancaster, Middlesex, Surrey, and Warwick. POOR RELIEF, IRELAND.-In the year ending Sept. 29, 1855, the total number of Paupers relieved in 163 unions was 305,142; of these 35,342 were relieved out of the house, and 269,800 in the house. The total expenditure for the year was 683,5967., of which 432,4821. was expended in in-door relief, and 4,7027. in out-door relief. The salaries and rations of officers amounted to 119,8331. INCREASE OF POPULATION AND STATE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH.— The return of the Registrar-General for the quarter ended on the 30th September, 1856, shows that the marriages are below the average in number, the births above the average, and the deaths below the average. As the births amounted to 157,633, and the deaths to 91,330, the natural increase of people in the quarter was 66,303. We have no returns of the immigrants into England and Wales. The emigrants from the ports of the United Kingdom at which there are Government emigration agents amounted to 50,228, of whom 19,225 were of English origin; if a due proportion of the numbers (6,907) of origin not distinguished be added to the 16,581 returned, 8,542 sailed to the Australian colonies, 973 to the North American colonies, and 9,710 to the United States.The number of English emigrants exceeds by 3,695 the number in the summer quarter of the year 1855.-91,330 deaths were registered in the three months of July, August, and September, and the death-rate was 1899 per cent. per annum, the average rate being 2.199; so that it was during the last season 300 under the average of the preceding 10 summer quarters. Out of the same population, there were six instead of the average tale of seven deaths. Cholera was epidemic in 1854, and the summer death-rate, then so high (2·423), fell to 1854 and to 1.899 in the subsequent summer quarters.-49,292 deaths occurred in the districts comprising the chief towns, 41,348 in the districts comprising the small towns and the country districts. The annual rate of mortality in the summer was 2.282 per cent. in the towns, and 1.603 in the country; the average being 2.671 in the towns, and 1.814 in the country.-The density of the population in the town districts was such in 1851, that 384 persons lived on 100 acres, while in the country districts 28 lived on the same ground; so that 14 were living in the same space in towns as was occupied by one in the country. It was shown in the sixteenth report that, under our present imperfect sanitary regimen, the mortality of the population increases in proportion as the population increases in density; and there must, consequently, be some relation between these elements. In three districts of England the annual mortality during 10 years was at the rate of 15 deaths in 1,000 living; in 14 districts at the rate of 16; in 47 districts at the rate of 17 in 1,000 living. Where the mortality rate was 15, 16, and 17, the average number of persons living on 100 acres was respectively 9, 17, and 22. Again, the annual mortality in the same period in 13 districts was at the rate of 27 deaths in 1,000 living; while in 18 districts the rates ranged from 28 to 36 in 1,000 living. The numbers of persons on 100 acres in these districts were respectively 279 and 693.-In the group of town districts as they are classed in these quarterly returns, the average summer mortality is at the annual rate of 26.71 in 1,000 living, while the average summer rate of the country and small town districts is 18 14 in 1,000 living. If it is assumed that 17:48 per 1,000 is due in both classes to other causes, then 66 of the rate in the country, and 9.23 of the rate in the large town districts, may be referred to the impurities of the air and water; but 66 is to 9.23 as 1 to 14, or as 28 to 384; that is, as the density of population. So the excessive mortality, on this hypothesis, is in the same proportion as the density of the population, or as the density of the zymotic atmosphere by which that population is surrounded.—If 17 is taken as the natural rate of mortality, then the excess of the two rates will be as 114 to 971; if 16 is made the standard, then the excesses will be as 2·14 and 1071, nearly as 3 in the country to 14 in the towns.-In no other country in Europe, it is believed, has the mortality of 9,680,592 of the population been so low as 16 in 1,000 during the last summer quarter; yet there is room for immense improvements in the sanitary condition of our country population. The germs of insalubrity are scattered about in every village; for the rational laws of health are violated alike in the cottage and in the farmhouse. The dwelling-houses sometimes rest on damp undrained ground; they lie often at the bottom of pit-like depressions of the earth, instead of standing on the sides of the higher grounds, from which the water flows away naturally, and the decaying organic emanations are dispersed and decomposed by the winds. The farmhouse is often close to the farmyard, on a low part of the farm, and is surrounded by buildings, ricks, and trees. In the yard, or near it, the refuse of the house, and of all the animals, is kept month after month undergoing fermentations, and giving off noxious vapours. Into the pond, out of which the cattle drink, the ammoniacal liquor falls that should find its way over the land. And it happens that if the air is stagnant for some days, if the temperature is high, if some sick person or diseased animal enters the place which is surrounded by salubrious fields, the farm becomes a scene of suffering, the cattle perish by pleuropneumonias, the children are attacked by scarlatinas, the wife has low fever, or the farmer himself dies, and his name, at a premature age, is enrolled in the register of deaths. About 6,426 English farmers die in a-year, and of them many are young; 2,605 are under 65 years of age. —In the dairy, a little dirt spoils the milk, butter, or cheese; unless the vessels of the brewery are clean the ale is injured; and farmers have hence learnt by experience the importance of cleanliness in the interior of their houses. From them the taste for household cleanliness has been diffused through the surrounding population. They have only to render the air which they breathe about their houses pure to become, with those around them, the halest people in the world.-To place any of the new farmhouses and cottages to be built on certain elevations is the first point; to carry out and to cover with earth all the refuse of the house and yards daily would prevent the escape of the ammonia, the most precious part of the manure, and at the same time rid the atmosphere of the fatal malaria that surrounds the farmhouses and cottages of the country.-These matters well deserve the attention of English landed proprietors, as they are generally much better informed in sanitary matters than their agents, and can at once give effect to improvements beyond the reach of the small proprietors of other countries, AMOUNT of MONEY EXPENDED for IN-MAINTENANCE and OUT-DOOR RELIEF in 624 UNIONS and PARISHES under the PoOR LAW AMENDMENT ACT, in ENGLAND and WALES during the Half-year ended at Lady-day, 1856. AMOUNT OF MONEY EXPENDED, &c.-continued. The above expenditure applies to 624 unions and parishes under the Poor Law Amendment Act, but does not include parishes under Local Act, Gilbert's Act, and the 43rd of Elizabeth (excepting those acting under the Accounts Order of the Poor Law Commissioners), the total expenditure for in-maintenance and out-relief of which, for the halfyear ended Lady-day, 1856, may be stated at about 204,0697. The cost of maintaining irremovable poor is included in the above return. The increase on the number of paupers beyond that of 1855 was 3 per cent., and the increase of expenditure 74,139. The number of paupers in receipt of relief in the above unions on July 1, 1856, in-door and out-door, was 795,111; on July 1, 1855, it was 812,954. Of these, in 1855, there were 15,902 in-door, and 116,363 out-door, who were adult able-bodied paupers, 51,467 of whom were widows. In 1856, on July 1, the numbers of the same class were 14,442 in-door, and 108,545 out-door, the widows numbering 50,307. The wives of soldiers or sailors in receipt of relief were 2,264, and of wives whose husbands were in jail, 2,038. VI.-Miscellaneous. EDUCATION, SCIENCE, AND ART.-Sums granted for such objects in the years 1855 and 1856. |