the number of married men, we get an average of £36, 7s. 2d. for the annual earnings of each married man and his family. But whereas the £25, 1s. 44d. is allotted exclusively to the maintenance of one person only, the income of £36, 7s. 2d. has to provide for an average of 55 persons. Unless the married man can support a wife and 3-5 children upon £11, 5s. 94d. per annum, he must dispense with luxuries, comforts, it may be conveniences, in which the unmarried man can indulge. And the average income is raised to this height by taking into account those families which, having three, four, five, and six children above ten years of age, have an average income of about £45 per annum. To reach this highest grade, even they must have passed through years of greater pinching, when their children were growing old enough to take care of themselves and earn a little. The mill through | which they have been ground may be conceived by taking into account these facts. The average annual earnings of a wife with no children were £3, 8s. 9d.; of a wife with 2 children under 10 years of age, £2, 9s. 104d.; of a wife with 3 children, one above 10, £2, 11s. 7 d.; of a wife with 4 children, two above 10, £2, 58. 74d. ; of a wife with 5 children, three above 10, £2, 19s. 1d.; of a wife with 7 children, four above 10, £2, 3s. 10d. From which it appears, that a woman with a family is only able to earn about twothirds of what a woman without that incumbrance can earn. The earnings of the children, also, fall to be taken into account. In families with 2 children, none of whom were above 10 years of age, the average annual earnings of each child were 15s. 3d.; in families with 3 children, one of them above 10, the average earnings of each child were £1, 1s. 94d.; in families with 4% children, two above 10, the average earnings of each child were £1, 13s.; in families with 5 children, three above 10, the average earnings of each child were £2, 2s. 5d.; in families with 7 children, four above 10, the average earnings of each child were £2, 17s. 8d. An additional head of income must, in strict accuracy, be mentioned-the value of corn gleaned by the children. As might be expected, the amount increases with the number of children; but as the age of the latter does not much affect their ability to glean, the increase is very gradual, and of small

These figures demonstrate that the married labourers incurred in general an additional amount of expenditure, which their additional income by no means compensated. The kind of expense incurred by the married men, as well as the amount, is different child-bed outlay, education of children, and the increased chances of sickness as the numbers of a family increase. It must be remarked, too, that the cases selected to illustrate this point, are, in so far as the unskilled labourers of the country are concerned, favourably circumstanced. Of the 539 families enumerated, 397 had gardens (averaging 19 rods); 136 had some fuel free of charge; 259 had each a pig; and 20 each a donkey. The average of their house-rent (£3, 11s. 4d) did not rise above the average level throughout the country; while in a rural district provisions are cheaper than in towns. Above all, the engrossment of their parents' attention by labour was not so dangerous for the children as in densely populated towns, where, when left at all to themselves, they are in constant danger of falling in with instructors in crime, and are placed in a situation where greater opportunities present greater temptation. If, then, among individuals who, for the class to which they belong,

may be considered in easy circumstances, marriage be a step which must render increased exertions and selfdenial necessary, what must it be for those who are in more difficult circumstances! Let the experience of a committee appointed in Glasgow, in 1837, to afford relief to the industrious poor in a season of severe pressure, answer the question. Out of 3072 adult males who applied for relief and were furnished with work, 2273 were married. The number of the children of those married applicants was 6302, or nearly 3 children to each family. No less than 532 of those married men were under 30 years of age of the children, 3994, or nearly two-thirds, were under 10 years of age. Of the 2273 married men, 2171 were weavers; and the account given by Mr Charles Baird, in a paper read before the Statistical Society of London, in February 1838, of the condition of that class even in times of no extraordinary pressure, may serve to show with what prospects they had rushed upon the hazardous respon sibilities of marriage :-" The great bulk of the weavers in Glasgow and its suburbs are in extreme poverty. Their wages which, even in 1819, were as low as 12. gross, or 10s. 8d. nett (the deductions being for loomrent, winding, &c.), now average only 8s. 4d. gross, or 7s. nett per week; and even for this miserable pittance they are obliged to work from 14 to 16 hours per day. Their houses, which are generally in the suburbs, are of the poorest description, barely furnished, and the food and clothing of the inmates, as might be expected, not only of the plainest description, but also quite ina dequate." It is apparent, that they who, in the best of times, can barely procure a subsistence by 14 or 16 hours of daily toil, must, by the slightest and shortest stagnation of trade, be reduced to destitution, and, under such circumstances, to incur the charge of a family is madness.

This is a consideration which has of late been much urged upon the poorer classes-not always, it is to be feared, in the most judicious manner. Leaving out of view that the deductions of Malthus, whose disciples have been the most busy in giving this kind of advice, are based upon statistics remarkable both for vagueness and inaccuracy, and tainted by the polemical bias of his mind when he first published them, the form in which they have generally been submitted is of all others the least calculated to make an impression upon uneducated minds. Abstract reasoning, geometrical and arithmetical ratios, convey no tangible ideas calenlated to influence their conduct; and the subordinate discussions into which some of these philosophers are fond of diverging, repel by inspiring disgust. Advice may be sound, however, although it be given in an uncouth form and by unamiable persons. In regard to improvident marriages, the industrious poor would do well to consider.

Marriage has its attractions, and, what is more, its moral advantages. It is the only institution which reconciles with the stability and good order of society one of the strongest impulses of our nature. If it add in some degree to a man's expenditure, it repays him by conferring blessings unattainable without it. The unmarried man is isolated; the married man, if ordinarily well-conducted, has a permanent hold on the affections of a portion of his fellow-creatures. A judicious selection of a helpmate ensures him comforts at home which no price could otherwise secure for him. If he act wisely, he will find his family affections the best of moral teachers. The state of marriage is honourable, and is desirable. And now let us turn to the considerations which every man, properly desirous of entering such a state, ought to weigh duly beforehand :-It is mainly by her domestic industry that he ought to expect his wife to contribute to his comfort-by her judicious aid in making what he earns go as far as possible. She may at first have some time to spare for earning, but when family comes upon her, that, and the household together, will take up by far the greatest part of her time. Chaldren must for a time be a mere draft upon his industry. Great and just complaints have been raised of the ex

From a table of mortality, a calculation is easily made with regard to the probable duration of the life of any person. The calculation is made, with regard to any particular age, by adding up, in a table of mortality, all the deaths after that age, and dividing the sum by the numbers living at that age. The quotient is the expectation of life of a person of that age. A table of the expectation of life, for service in life assurance and annuity business, is formed by doing this with regard to every age, and putting the whole in proper succession.

Age.

Million Tontine of 1695.

Expecta- Expectation. Males.

Parish Registers, 1813-1830.

Expecta- Expectation. tion. Males. Females.

43-20

50-14

tion at every fifth year; joined to which is a similar table formed from the Million Tontine of 1695, and indicating very clearly the improvement of life in Eng land during the last hundred years.

Diseases.

Of the specific causes of mortality, it is difficult to procure any where a proper estimate, on account of the imperfection of most systems of registration, and particularly the want of precision and uniformity in naming various diseases. The system of registration recently established in England is conducted upon enlightened principles, and appears to have hitherto been managed with great regard to correctness. It has enabled its able director, Mr Farr, to draw up very minute and comparatively satisfactory tables of the fatality of diseases in England and Wales for several recent years. The registered deaths of 1838 were 342,529, of which 175,044 were of males, and 167,485 of females. The causes of death were assigned in 330,559 instances: assuming that the other cases might be distributed proportionally among the assigned causes, a table was constructed, of which the following is a summary :

35

24.12

26-32

30-03

31.51

25.14

1. Epidemic, Endemic, and Contagious

Diseases,

Including

5-861

Of the Nervous System,

16-034 13-909

3.

7.33

27-850

16-033 19-194

4.

Diseases

Of the Organs of Circulation,

Of the Digestive Organs, Of the Urinary Organs, Of the Organs of Generation, Of the Organs of Locomotion, Of the Integumentary System, Of Uncertain Seat,

1-205

915

11.

Old Age,

12.

Deaths by Violence,

9-637

5.107 2-127

11-929

January,

February,

March,

April,

Deaths.

Country.

Months-1815 to 1826.

Town.

59,892 116,129 56,267 114,758 54,277 114,244 51,818 107,264

48,911

93,714

46,607

45,212

47,082

78,802

51,700

84,464 77,555

95,822

In 1838, the weather at the commencement of the year was more than usually cold, and in certain classes of diseases the mortality of that year in the metropolis for the different seasons was as follows:

Causes of Death.

annual number of burials," says Mr Rickman, in the preface to the Population Returns of 1830, "as collected in pursuance of the population acts, authorises a satisfactory inference of diminished mortality in England; the average number of burials not differing materially from the year 1780 to the year 1815; the first five years of that period, the last five years, and the whole period of thirty-six years, giving the same average result of 193,000 registered burials, the population having increased 3,300,000 in the meantime." It appears from a subsequent part of the preface, that the annual mortality in 1780, as near as could be ascertained, was 1 in 34 or 35 of the population; that in 1820 it was I

Effects of Wealth and Civilisation.

The progress of wealth and civilisation takes a prominent place among the conditions either causing or accompanying a reduction of mortality.

The number of deaths that occurred in the city of London in 1697, was 21,000; a century later, in 1797, the number was only 17,000, notwithstanding the increase of the population. About the middle of last century, the annual mortality in the same city was as high as 1 in 20; in 1830, it was 1 in 41. Of course, in the metropolis of a great nation, an increase in the number of inhabitants is not necessarily a proof that the indigenous population is increasing; but the average of deaths being in London 1 for every 41 inhabitants in 1830, and the average of registered baptisms (every where in this country less than that of births, and most of all in London), being in the same year 1 in every 31, we know that, independent of the increase from immigration, the population of London has been steadily augmenting. The statistics of the city of Amsterdam present a remarkable contrast to this picture. In 1727, the annual average of mortality was 1 death for every 27 inhabitants; and the average for the twelve years preceding 1832 was the same. During these twelve years, too, the average number of deaths in a year was 7336; the annual average number of births only 7282. If during that period the population of Amsterdam did not positively decrease, it must have been kept up by immigration.

There is another point of difference in the career of these two cities for a century back. Whilst the wealth of London has been increasing almost in a geometrical ratio, the commerce of Amsterdam, and with it the opulence of the city, has been diminishing. Here, then, we have two striking examples of an increase in the mean value of life attendant upon augmented wealth, and, at the least, a stationary condition of that mean value attendant upon a diminution of commercial prosperity. The analogy is marked, and not surprising,

"The mortality of the inhabitants of England appears to have sunk to its minimum in the decade preceding the population abstract of 1821; and since that time it seems to have risen as fast as it descended after the year 1800. The census of 1841 gives one death annually for every 44-5 persons." The wealth of England has, however, continued to increase; and this shows the necessity of inquiring into the minute details of our social system during the period of increasing and diminishing healthiness, in order to see what has caused both.

In general terms, it may be remarked that the commencement of the diminished ratio of mortality is nearly contemporaneous with those inventions which contributed to give such an increased power to the productive industry of the nation. The Duke of Bridgewater and Brindley constructed the Worsley and Manchester Canal between 1758-60, and the Liverpool and Manchester Canal between 1762-67. In 1769, the connexion between Boulton and Watt for bringing into play the patent obtained by the latter for improvements in the steam-engine, was formed. In 1775, the part ners obtained from Parliament a further extension of the patent, which shows that they were then only be ginuing to reap the advantage of the improvements. Arkwright obtained the first patent for his spinning machinery in 1769, and his second patent in 1775. His first water-mill was erected in 1771; but five years elapsed before he began to derive any profit from it The influence of these improvements was, from the first, of the most marked kind, and it ramified over the whole country.

By means of these inventions, conveniences and luxuries were brought within the reach of incomes which previously could not afford them; and the extraordinary cheapness and goodness of British manufac tures, with such advantages, so increased the demand for them in foreign markets, that the manufacturers found the supply of labour insufficient. The national wealth was not only increased, it was diffused through all classes of society. Increased incomes, the spirit of