An emigrant ship, the Edmond, of London, was Lost
During the Storm which raged on the Irish coast on the
night of the 19th. She had sailed that evening from
Limerick, and went ashore on a dangerous point called
Kilkee, near Kilrush. She soon went to pieces; and,
of the two hundred and sixteen persons on board, ninety-
six perished.

SOCIAL, SANITARY, AND MUNICIPAL
PROGRESS.

The Registrar-General's Quarterly Returns of the
births and deaths, and of the marriages, in England and
Wales, are favourable in a high degree. The return of
the births and deaths extends to the 30th September;
that of the marriages to the 30th June last. The deaths
were but 86,044; whereas the deaths in the same
quarter of 1849 were 135,358. The last number is of
course swelled by the mortality from the cholera; but
the provincial returns generally concur in declaring
that sanatory measures have increased the chance of
life throughout the kingdom. The Registrar thus sums
up the results of his tables:—"The mortality is much
below the average, and the public health has never been
so good since 1845 as in the present quarter. The rate
of mortality is 1.901 per cent, per annum. At this rate
one in 211 persons living died in three months. The
chances of living through this quarter were 210 to 1;
the average chances of living through three summer
months (1840, 50) for persons of all ages, being 192 to 1.
The rate of mortality in 506 districts, comprising
chiefly small towns and country parishes, was 1·693 per
cent, per annum in the quarter; the average summer
rate (1840, 50), being 1.832 per cent. The rate of
mortality in 117 districts, comprising the large towns, was
2·206 per cent, per annum; the average rate (1840, 50)
being 2·517 per cent. The juxtaposition of the figures in the
table suggests the melancholy reflection that more than
seven millions of people, inhabiting the Metropolis and
all the cities and great centres of industry, are still
exposed to a mortality which is not inherent in their
nature, but is due to the artificial circumstances in
which they are placed. The waters, the sewers, the
soils, the churchyards, the houses, emit poisons. To
every 10 natural deaths, 4 violent deaths—deaths from
these poisonous exhalations—are super-added.—The
marriages are returned by more than 12,000 churches
or chapels, 2869 registered places of worship connected
with the Established Church, and 623 superintendent
registrars' offices. The results are given collectively,
and in groups, showing the special movement of
particular districts. It is, that the average increase of
marriages invariably accompanies prosperity, and the
average decrease attends a reverse of prosperity in
manufacturing and commercial pursuits: the remarkable
exception of agricultural Lincolnshire may be held to
prove the general rule:—The marriages in all England
in the quarter ending June 30, 1850, were 39,018. The
numbers in the spring quarter declined rapidly from
1846 to 1848, and rose still more rapidly up to 1850;
thus following and pourtraying the state of the country.
London, Cheshire, Lancashire, the West Riding of
Yorkshire, and South Wales, presented the greatest
fluctuations, and the greatest increase of marriages in
the June quarter 1850. The marriages increased in
Middlesex, Hertford, and Buckingham; in Essex and
Suffolk the marriages declined, as they did also in
Devon and Cornwall; in Shropshire, Staffordshire,
Worcestershire, and Warwickshire—the coal and iron
regions—the marriages increased; they increased also
in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire—
the seats of the thread, lace, and other manufactures.
In the great agricultural county of Lincoln the fluctuation
was in an opposite direction; the marriages rose
from June 1846 to June 1848, and then declined. In
the East and North Ridings, Durham, Northumberland
and Cumberland, and Westmoreland, in
Monmouthshire, and North Wales, the marriages increased
in 1850. The marriages in Portsmouth and Plymouth
declined; in Bristol and Cheltenham they increased;
in Stoke-upon-Trent (the Potteries), in Coventry, and
in Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester, the increase
was considerable. It was still greater in Leeds; Halifax
and Sheffield shared in the general advance. Hull,
Wolverhampton, and Salisbury—where cholera was
exceedingly fatal in 1849—have little more than the
average marriages.—Of births, 146,970 were registered.
"The births are invariably more numerous in the first
and second than in the third and fourth quarters of the
year; and they are in the last fewer by 8,757 than in the
previous June quarter; the number and the proportion
to the population are, however, greater in this than in
any of the corresponding quarters since 1839. The
increase of births is greatest in London, in the West
Midland Counties, and in the North Western Counties,
Cheshire, and Lancashire." The bearing of these
details on the statistics of our population, is thus shown
—"The excess of births registered over deaths in the
quarter was 60,926; which, if all the births were
registered, would be the natural increase of the population.
In the same time, 53,703 emigrants sailed from three
ports of England; 1394 from Plymouth, 7684 from
London, and 44,625 from Liverpool. This leaves a
narrow margin for the increase of population; but many
of the emigrants entered at the English ports are from
Ireland, which has been for many years diffusing a
stream of natives over England as well as America.
The progress of the whole fixed and moving population
of the country can only be determined accurately from
a comparison of the returns of births and deaths, of
emigrants and immigrants, with periodical enumerations."

The Lancashire Public Schools Association held a
conference at Manchester on the 27th ult. Mr.
Alexander Henry, M.P., presided; Mr. Cobden, Mr. Brotherton,
Mr. J. B. Smith, and most of the prominent friends
of the movement in London, Liverpool, and Leeds, and
in Scotland and Ireland, together with the Rev. Dr. Bacon,
a gentleman of learning and personal weight from
Newhaven, in the American State of Connecticut, were present.
Letters of regretful excuse were read from Mr. C. P.
Villiers, Mr. Hume, Mr. Ewart, Colonel Thompson,
and some other members of Parliament, and from the
Archbishop of Dublin, Mr. John Stuart Mill, Mr.
Carlyle, and the Messrs. Chambers of Edinburgh, and other
friends of the movement.—The principal speakers were
Mr. Samuel Lucas, of London, Mr. Absalon Watkin, the
Rev. Mr. Thorp, rector of Burton Overy in Leicestershire,
and Mr. Cobden. A change in the title was
suggested by Mr. Cobden—from Secular Schools to Public
Schools Association; on the ground (he said) that Dr.
Samuel Johnson defines "secular" to be not merely
non-sectarian, but a great deal more—"not spiritual—
relating to the affairs of the present world—”not holy—
worldly." Now he did not think that this School
Association was unspiritual; he did not think it deserved
the name of irreligious. There was no greater foe to
religion than vice, and no greater support to vice than
ignorance. In fact, ignorance was the great parent of
vice. The association sought to promote knowledge.
They were promoting religion by promoting knowledge
in its highest form, and that form of religion, too, which
when understood must have the support of all classes.
The suggestion caused a good deal of verbal criticism;
but in the end Mr. Cobden's suggestion was adopted,
and the title of the new organisation will be the National
Public School Association.

The annual election of children to the Asylum for
Idiots took place on the 31st ult., when 15 of this
unhappy class were elected out of no fewer than 170
eligible candidates. Previous to the election, a general
meeting of the subscribers was held, at which Alderman
Sir George Carroll presided. In advocating the claims
of the charity, he observed that two great fundamental
objections had met them at the very threshold of their
undertaking—one was, that they could do nothing
for the idiot; and the other was, that there were
comparatively no idiots. The first objection had been fully
answered by the patient efforts of the last two years, for
though they were unable to point to any positive
instance of a perfect cure, there were at this moment many
cases exhibiting a considerable state of improvement.
A poor laundress, whose child had been at the asylum,
was so struck with the great improvement that had
taken place in him, that with tears in her eyes she had