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Leader (1850-1860), 12th February 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 210, Untitled Article

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      and dangers at Scutari and elsewhere was secured . The viceroyalty of Ionia has long been treated by successive Governments as a perquisite of party poorer , and lias- teen made use of unhesitatingly as a means of providing for needy , troublesome , and effiete political dependants . It is now conferred upon a mail in the vigour of life , unshackled by factious ties , thoroughly cognisant of the region he is going to and the races he has to govern , and who , an short , possesses-what Mr . Garlyle terms that not very common but rather indispensable appendage— - ahead . The post is an eminently difficult one , and for that reason Sir Bulwer Lytton was wise in choosing such a man as Sir Henry Storks to fill it .

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      THE CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE—HOW TO IMPROVE IT . Tse quarterly returns of the Registrar-General inform us that the deaths in 1858 in England and Wales were much above the average , and the marriages , to the end of September , were much beiowthe average . In 1858 the natural increase df the population in this part of the empire was 428 daily . ; in 1857 it was 665 . In the four quarters ended September : 30 th , the number of marriages in 1858 was 154 , 457 , and in 1857 , 161 , 607 . These facts indicate a great retardation in the progress oj population ; and if , as the ^ Registrar-General

      • says , " one great nuisance perpetually increases with population , " it cannot be denied that with it knowledge , skill , division of labour , conveniences and luxuries also increase . Population is only another : name for society . It embraces all that is new and all that is good , as well as all that is evil . It is . impossible , therefore , to have a more interesting . subject brought under notice than the progress of population . As the Leader , necessarily swears _ by no masteiy and thinks all kinds of idolatry , including ¦ worship of officials , a source of mischief , and as it cannot agree with some of the deductions of the Registrar-General ^ it means to examine them , and

      state the reasons for not accepting as infalliblej like some of its contemporaries ^ the conclusions of this officer on this all-important subject . The facts adverted to are unimpeachable ; but the Registrar-General says , on examining them , " It is evident that the excessive mortality of the year 1858 may be traced partly to the pressure in the early part of the year on the poor in the manufacturing districts ; partly to the extreme cold of November ; partly to the defective supplies of pure water ; and partly to the prevalence of the epidemic of diphtheria , " Then , carried away by official zeal , ntj adds : — "At the rates of comparatively healthy districts , the deaths in the year should not

      have exceeded 349 , 398 ; the actual deaths amounted to 450 , 018 * and the excess of 100 , 620 deaths is due oliiefly to the fatal neglect of the sanitary arrangementswhich are required in every district , and are indispensable in densely * peopied cities . " The public , interest is deeply concerned in ascertaining the causes of the increased mortality and decreased marriages . Are they , as the Registrar-• Gencral asserts , " chiefly the neglect of sanitary arrangements ? " or are they chiefly- ^ -not partly , in

      • a small degree- —but chiefly due to the pressure on the poor , which , great in the early part of the year , is at nil times severely felt P As we agree . with the Registrar-General , we shall back his recommendation for a new stringent law to impose a heavy'fine -on every occupier who retains " English g ^ uano " noar a dwelling-place ; as we differ from him , we 'shall endeavour to relievo the great multitude from the pressure which , always weighing on them , can never be increased without causing their destruction .

      By sanitary arrangements we understand regulations suggested by medical men , carried into execution by officers or health and enforced by penalties , as contradistinguished from poverty and destitution , and the pressure , not of cold or heatfor to these all are equally subjected—but of taxation , -&o ., which falls exclusively—4 > y what oircumlooutory procoas . we istop not to inquire—on the poor . Sanitary . arrangements have now been carried into -effect -for several years , and never before , " says the Registrar , General , " were so'many deaths registered in any autumn quarter . " Every town in the kingdom has been annoyed by the doctors , and the result is am unprecedented mortality . " The emoesa of deaths in Weak Derby" ( Liverpool ) , eaya tho medical officer , cannot be aaoribedto . a want of good eanittiry regulations . " In London , the very home of the . Board of Health , the excess of deaths in the

      last quarter of 18 , 58 , 2305 above the deaths m 1857 ( nearly 15 per cent . ) , and 3443 . ( nearly 24 per pent ;) : above the deaths in 1856 , in the same period , or a death rate in the last quarter of 2 . 402 , compared to a death rate in 1857 of 2 . 265 , and , in 1856 , of 1 . 995 , was certainly not due to any neglect of sanitary regulations , which have been diligently and incessantly enforced . " The excess ^ too , of mortality was in the six cold months , ' the neglect of sanitary arrangements > s usually most injurious in the summer . Severe cold puts an end to ! the deleterious effects of " middens , cesspools , and

      English guano / ' In . summer , the Thames and all its tributary sewers and gutters were most complained of , but then the mortality was not in excess . The early and severe cold of November , though fatal to persons poorly fed , thinly clothed , and huddled together in the streets—bur houseless , homeless poor , checked , exhalations from filth , and from the " shameful poisonous nuisances we still leave in or near dwelling-houses . " Again , the deficiency of the supply of water , felt as much if not more in

      country places than in . towns , was , in most cases , the consequence of the " smallest rainfall , in the year 1858 since 1840 . " A deficiency of rain , Of food , of clothing , of fuel , of house accommodation are all provocative of disease and premature death , and unless sanitary arrangements means providing all these in abundance , it is obvious , on the Registrar-General ' s own showing , that the increased mortality in 1858 cannot with justice be ascribed chiefly to a " fatal neglect of sanitary arrangements . " . .

      There was , however , a decrease in marriage as well as an increase of deaths ; both are adverse to social welfare , and the former cannot by any possibility be referred to neglect of sanitary arrangements . If it be said that , the increase of mortality removes marriageable'persons , the answer is that the great increase of mortality was in the last three months of . the year , and all the decrease iii marriages occurred before the end of September . The increased mortality , therefore , could not be the cause of decreased marriage . One cause , however , very slightly noticed by the Registrar-General" the pressure in the early part' . of the year on the poor "—will suffice to explain . both mucli more

      satisfactorily than the neglect of sanitary arrangements . We will illustrate this , by a reference to former periods , and let not the reader pass over the illustrations as dry and tedious , and leading to no practical end ; for as lie forms correct opinions on this subject , so will ho be an advocate or an opponent of a vast system of bureaucratic meddling legislation . The " annual rate per cent , of marriages , births , and deaths , " shows that the year 1 S 46 is the first subsequent to 1841 when the death rate 2 . 307 was above the mean rate 2 . 238 of the ten years ended with 1851 . Now we all know that in' 1846 the

      potato-rot began , and in December of that year the price of wheat rose from 55 s . 6 d . per quarter in January to 60 s . 3 d . In June , 1847 , it rose to 92 s . lOd . The consequence was that the death rate rose in 1847 to 2 . 472 , and in 1848 to 2 . 513 . Following this increase of mortality , the marriage rate fell from , 861 in 1846 to . 793 in 1847 , . 798 in 1848 , and . 809 in 1849 . Hore , then , we have a plain and distinct proof that " pressure on the poor" hi 1846 and in 1847 , when the commercial convulsion occurred , was sufficient to cause both increased mortality and decreased marriage . In

      1848 the average price of wheat fell to 44 s . 3 d ., in 1850 to 40 s . 3 d ., and it continued below GOs . till 1853 . The oousequence was that in 1850 the death rate fell to 2 . 077 , and the marriage rate again rose to . 800 , to reach in 1853 . 894 . This relative decrease of mortality and increase of marriage continued till after the rise in tho price of wheat in 1853 . This , then , is a second but converse example of the rates of inamago and death boing greatly influenced by an abundance or scarcity of the means of subsistence . Through all tho

      interval sanitary arrangements were continually improved and enforced , tvnd they had no corresponding cfl'cot . What has happened now P J ? ov three years wo have had a high price of food , but wo have had also a most flourishing trado , The peoplo havo been able to buy the dear i ' ocx . 1 , tho rate ol . mortality has beou comparatively low , and tho marriage rate comparatively high . In 1857 , however , this flourishing trade was interrupted . A coinmoroial convulsion ensued . Tho adjustment of tho employers' or capitalists' accounts in England and tho United States , &o ., was the suspension for a

      consihave influenced these circumstances , we cannot conceive ; and , till the Registrar-General explains , he must be content , we think , to lie under the imputation' of having been hurried by his zeal for his' -craft into giving a very imperfect and incoi-rect explanation of the cause of the deteriorated condition of society in 1858 . To the nation these different vie \ vs are of undoubted importance . As it coincides with the Registrar-General it .. will look for future safety to more and improved sanitary regulations ; as it coincides with the Leader , it . will be aware that only by lessening the pressure imposed on the poor by the superincumbent mass can it hope permanently to lessen the death rate and continually increas the marriage rate , or permanently . promote the abundance and the ; happiness of human Hie . . ~

      derable period of much profitable industry . The multitude , previously drained and enfeebled by a comparatively high price of food , were pauperised -to a considerable extent ; The price of food was low in 185 S , but multitudes had no means of buyiun- it . In the third week of January the increase of pauperism in Lancashire was 50 T 7 5 per cent ., in Jforkshirc , 21 . 21 per cent . In Sheffield , at Lad yday last , the poor-rates were almost doubled . The means and the hopes of employers were reduced , and with the great pressure on the poor , mortality increased and marriage decreased to a very remarkable extent in 1858 . How any attention to the most refined sanitary arrangements could have improved , or in the smallest degree

      Untitled Article

      ' ^ THE ORGAN OF THE-MANDARINS , " Newspapers haye a double character . They represent their writers ; they . also represent their readers , when they have any , which is not a mutter of equal certainty . In their first and personal aspect ,, we hold that they should be exempt from comment , at any rate , at the hands of their literary contemporaries . . We of the press all live in « lass houses , and are therefore eminently disqualified for the amusement of stone-thrp \ ving . ¦ In their second and public character , wo consider newspapers to be a fair subject of legitimate discussion . . At the present moment the hopes and fears , the likes and dislikes , the convictions and the prejudices —in fact , the whole mental condition of the different classes of the community—are matters of more than common interest . The operation performed by Medea upon her husband ' s sire is about to be repeated ; the body politic is to be boiled down hi the cauldron of Reform ; the prayer of the dissenting Dorcas is to be fulfilled ; the old womau is to be turned into a new man . So far so good . No doubt when all is over—when the ancient Adam is driven out , and the process of regeneration i * complete—everything will turn out to be for the

      best ; but still , pending tho commencement oi operations , every class amongst us oxhibits a uot unnatural anxiety to assert ita peculiar claims to an exemption from pain and a prominent positiou in the regenerated structure . It hasTjeen the fashion of late years to advocate the superior chums of the intellectual class . " Ht £ tlie sorrows of an educated man , " has been the cry of the hour . Wo need hardly say that we iiavc no prejudice against education . Before , however , \ vo admit the proposition , that thoso who have received the benefits orclassicul instruction ouerht , tow facto

      to havp an exolusivo or oven a predominant uiflucnfce on the conduct of public ail airs , we arc disposed to inquire what cspeoial qualifications for the task of government they have given proof of . Now , of ull tho organs of the educated classes thoro is liono so exclusivel y or so completely a representative as the tiatumai / lleoiew . It represents the very art / mo de la oremo of English education— -the upper ton thousand of our university world . This well-conducted periodical claimsand , wo believe , claims with justice—to represent tho opinions of tho highly-rospeotablo and educated publio for whom it is written . It is , therefore , ui no spirit of hostility , but as a matter of curious investigation , that wo have oudoavourcd to diaoovcr

      what thoso opinions may bo . If report , oitb not , the Saturday lteolow is a sort of posthumous bastard of tha old Morning Chroniole . When that venerable periodical w ) W [ j » from publio notice , in common with tho looUto partyit was supposed that tho whole

      cou-, oern was defunct , without heir or uil ' spnng . After a time , however , it was dlsoovorod that some of tho survivors of . tho shipwreolc Jiatt

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 12, 1859, page 210, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2281/page/18/