were registered in the summer quarter of 1842; and
2400 more than have been returned in the summer
quarter of any previous years. Except in the eastern
and south-eastern counties, the increase of marriages
has been general in all the great divisions of the country.
In London the increase has been considerable; in
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire,
and Bedfordshire, it has probably kept pace
with the population; in Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and
Cornwall, in Gloucestershire, Shropshire, and Staffordshire,
the increase has been still more marked; in
Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Cheshire,
Lancashire, and the West Riding of Yorkshire,
however, the greater part of the excess has arisen.
Northumberland, Cumberland, and South Wales exhibit
nearly the same increase as the Midland Counties.
Among the counties in which the marriages have
decreased, or have not sensibly increased, may be
named—Kent, Hampshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Devonshire,
Lincolnshire, the East and North Ridings of
York, Westmoreland, and North Wales. The marriages
at Brighton increased from 133 in the summer of 1847,
and 113 in 1848, to 177; at Cheltenham, from 90 to 105;
at Clifton, from 88 to 115. At Wolstanton, Burslem,
and Stoke-upon-Trent, among the Potteries, the
multiplication of marriages is remarkable. In the iron
districts of Dudley, Walsall, Birmingham, and Merthyr
Tydfil, the advance was slow or inconsiderable. At
Coventry, as well as Spitalfields, Whitechapel, the seats
of the silk trade, the marriages increased rapidly, as
they did also at Leicester, Nottingham, and Derby, at
Stockport, and Macclesfield. At Manchester, the
marriages rose from 1097 to 1442; at Preston from 159
to 281; Halifax, from 215 to 313; Leeds, from 418 and
359 to 488; Newcastle-on-Tyne, from 293 to 315;
Carlisle, from 39 to 53; Merthyr Tydfil, from 160 to 213.

In the purely agricultural counties, marriage then still
went on slowly, but steadily—in all the iron and coal
fields at but a slightly increasing rate; while in all the
counties peopled by the workers in lace, silk, wool, and
cotton, the number of marriages—of new families
established—has increased at a rate of which there are few
examples in the returns of the last 100 years; and the
general result is an aggregate increase in the marriages
of the whole country during the summer quarter of the
year 1850.

The Births in the quarter following, which ended on
December 31, 1850, were also the greatest number ever
registered in the autumn quarters of any previous year.
146,268 children were born in the three months. The
births are in general most numerous in the spring quarter,
and were so in the spring of 1850. They have since
greatly exceeded the numbers registered in previous
years in all the divisions of the kingdom, whether
agricultural or manufacturing, in counties ravaged by
cholera, and in counties left unscathed by that plague.

In regard to the Increase of Population, the excess of
births registered over deaths in the quarter is 54,245.
The usual excess is 40,000 more births than deaths; the
excess in the last quarter of 1845 was 50,000; in 1847,
when influenza was epidemic, only 24,000; in 1849,
when the cholera epidemic was rapidly declining, 38,000.

In the last quarter of the year 1850, 56,971 Emigrants
left the ports of the United Kingdom at which there are
government emigration officers; 3836 departed from
Irish ports; 1903 from Glasgow and Greenock; and
51,232 from three English ports—namely, 1702 from
Plymouth, 4282 from London, and 45,248 from Liverpool.
During the whole of the year 1850 the births
were 593,567, the deaths, 369,679; and consequently the
excess of births over deaths was 223,888 in England.
The same year 280,843 emigrants sailed from the shores
of the United Kingdom; 214,606 (many of them of
Irish birth) from England; 15,154 from Scotland; and
51,083 from Ireland. The number of births and deaths
in Scotland and Ireland is unknown; and the census
alone can disclose at what precise rate the population
increases; but we know that the new births more than
replace the vast armies of peaceful emigrants that every
year assemble without much noise, and led, apparently
by the same kind of divine instinct that directs other
migrations, leave their native land to seek homes in
regions prepared for them all over the world.

With respect to Public Health, the Registrar-General
states, that its comparatively favourable condition is
evident from the reduced mortality. 92,023 deaths were
registered; and allowing for the probable increase of
population, the rate of mortality is lower than it has
been in any of the last quarters of the years 1839-50,
except 1845. The comparatively good health of several
districts is ascribed by the registrars to the employment
and the improved condition of the people. Hull was
the only town in which any appearance of epidemic
cholera was observed. In that district and Sculcoates,
so fatally visited by cholera last year, several persons
died of cholera in the quarter. At present this district
may be considered healthy. After the great epidemic
of cholera in 1832 a second outbreak followed in 1833,
and was fatal in towns that had before been spared. It
is a subject of congratulation, and is perhaps ascribable
to the better circumstances of the people, and to some of
the sanitary measures in progress, that the country
escaped a second visitation in 1850. The mortality in
the autumn quarter was at the rate of 2323 per cent. per
annum in 117 town districts; and 1824 per cent. per
annum in 506 districts, comprising small towns and
country parishes. The towns, to every four deaths
from what may be called natural causes, lost, in a
favourable season, one life by the poisons generated in
crowded, dirty houses, in the churchyards, in slaughter-
houses, in undrained streets, and sewers.

Nearly Two hundred Model Life-boats have been
forwarded to the Admiralty from all parts of the country,
including Ireland, to compete for the prize of 100
guineas liberally offered by Rear-Admiral the Duke of
Northumberland for the best model life-boat, and an
additional 100 guineas for a life-boat that should be
built according to the prize model. It appears that the
Duke of Northumberland is in correspondence with the
Royal National Shipwreck Institution, Great
Winchester-street, and has promised to communicate the
result of his decision to that society. It is stated that
the above Institution has expended nearly £6000 on
life-boats at different periods, and is always endeavouring
to increase the number of its life-boat establishments
on various parts of the coasts of the United Kingdom.

The following arrangements for the Great Exhibition
have been determined on. Season tickets will be
issued, not transferable, the price of which will be for
a gentleman, £3 3s., and for a lady, £2 2s. The
Commissioners reserve to themselves the power of raising
the price of the season tickets, after the first issue is
exhausted, should circumstances render such a course
advisable. On Thursday, the 1st of May, being the
first day of the Exhibition, season tickets only will be
available, and no money will be received at the doors.
On the second and third days, Friday and Saturday,
the price will be upon each day, for one admission only,
£1. On Monday, the 5th of May, and the fourth day of
the Exhibition, the admission will be reduced to 5s.,
and the same price continued for the succeeding seventeen
days. On and after Monday, the 26th of May, or
the twenty-second day of the Exhibition, the charges
for admission will be on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays,
and Thursdays, in each week, 1s.; on Fridays,
2s. 6d., and upon Saturdays, 5s. To prevent confusion,
no change will be given at the doors; but there will be
an office close by the entrance at which money may be
exchanged. The Exhibition will be open daily, Sundays
excepted. Should experience render any alteration in
these arrangements necessary, the Commissioners
reserve to themselves the power of making such
modifications as may appear desirable, of which due notice
will be given to the public.

At the last meeting of the Chancery Reform Association,
many cases were brought forward of injustice and
injury, amounting to ruin, through the delays and
denials of the law. Mr. S. Hicks, of Bath, stated by
letter, that his father, Mr. Charles Hicks, an eminent
surgeon, left a fortune of £200,000, besides landed
property: it is now in Chancery, and all that remains
between the writer of the letter and his paternal fortune
is the report of the Master, now three years over-due.
Mr. I. Houghton, a great land-agent and farmer of
Berkshire, mentioned the case of a man who has