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BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS.

     The Registrar-General’s return of births, marriages, and deaths, containing, as usual, much valuable information, has just been issued; and though statistics are to some anything but interesting, on this subject they undoubtedly lose much of their proverbial dryness. ‟Births, marriages, and deaths” are, in the case of many readers of the public journals, certainly not the last items sought for; and if the eye intuitively turn to the column in which they appear, some information as to their number must possess a corresponding interest.

     It appears that in the three mouths ending March 31st, the births of 265,663 children, and the deaths of 185,138  persons of both sexes were registered, the estimated population of England, Scotland, and Ireland being about 30,004,519. With regard to births, the Registrar-General says:_

   ‟Of children born in the March quarter of the present year the number was 196,737, against the high number 194,287 in the corresponding period of 1865. The annual birth-rate for the same period was 3ּ‧776 per cent.; the average being 3‧644. The birthrate is always higher in the first six months of the year than in the last; but the tables for the last ten years furnish no instance of a rate so high as that which prevailed last quarter. London yielded its fair contribution to the increase; the births were under 30,000 in the metropolis, and slightly above that nunber in Cheshire and Lancashire. In some counties, as Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Norfolk, and Leicestershire, there was a decrease, for which others, chiefly in the northern parts of the Kingdom and in Wales, more than compensate by their increase. The births were very numerous in Surrey, Devonshire, Lancashire, Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland, and Wales.”

     Some interesting statistics with regard to marriages are given by the same authority:—

   ‟In the quarter that ended 31st December 1865, there were 114,100 persons married in England. In London the weddings rose 7856 and 8711 in the December quarter of' the two previous years to 9746 in that of last year. In Lancashire and Cheshire, which together contain a population not much exceeding the metropolitan, the marriages in the same three periods wore 7635, 7253, and 8576. In the Northern Counties they were 2917, 3173, and 3274. In Monmouthshire and Wales 3329, 3416, and 3538. In Yorkshire 5659, 6027, and 6291. Taking a few districts as examples, the marriages in the three December quarters of 1863, 1864, and 1865 were in Kensington 505, 555, and 706. ln Marylebone 478, 524, and 601. In Pancras 554, 643, and 668. In Islington 353,422, and 525. In Hackney 258, 281, and 371. In  Shoreditch 560, 607, and 600. In Bethnal-green 360, 420, and 520. In Lambeth 624, 669, and 799. The returns show continued prosperity in the seats of the woollen trade. In Bradford the marriages in the same three corresponding quarters were 633, 635 and 676. In Leeds they were 525, 517, and 604. The marriage rate per annum, int the December quarter of 1865, was 2‧148. This result represents the proportion of persons married to a hundred in the population. The average of ten corresponding quarters was 1‧981 per cent. Weddings are always the most frequent in the Christmas quarter, and in that of 1864 the marriage rate was 2‧022; but within the range of the comparison, viz., the ten years 1856-65, a rate as highl as 2‧1 per cent. is without any example, with the single exception of that which is supplied by the present return.”

     The Registrar-General, under the head ‟Deaths,” points out that the weather during the quarter had been unfavourable to health, and that many persons of advanced age had been carried off by exciting or aggravated pulmonary diseases. He then says:—

   ‟The total number of deaths in England and Wales was 138,233, which implies a rate of mortality above the average of ten previous winters, though not so high as it had been in the winters of 1864 and 1865. In these two periods 142,977 and 140,646 deaths were registered. The annual rate of mortality last quarter in England was 2‧653 per cent.; the average of ten previous winters being 2‧504. But it is a remarkable circumstance that this excess above the average was contributed entirely by the large towns; for in the country districts the death-rate, 2‧252, was actually lower than the average, 2‧295. The annual rate of mortality in the 142 town districts was 2‧967 against the average 2‧680. These results confirm the conclusion that there were other destructive causes at work besides unfavourable states of the weather—that the diseases above mentioned, which commit so much havoc in towns, were still more extensively fatal, and only acquired additional vigour from influences peculiar to the season. The death-rate was higher in Cheshire and Lancashire than in any other of the eleven divisions; it was 3‧384 per cent. In Yorkshire it was 2‧960; in London, 2‧666; in the West Midland Counties 2‧654; in the Northern Counties (Durham, Northumberland, &c.) 2‧443. It was the lowest in the South-eastern Counties, where it was 2‧185.”

     By a comparison of the above figures it will therefore be seen that the total increase of population during the quarter has been 58,504, or 650 daily. 39,672 persons have, however, emigrated from the various ports of the kingdom, and of these 11,000 were of English origin.

     But interesting as the above figures may be, our local statistics will, of course, be still more so, and, we think, no less satisfactory. The following is the return for Hampshire:—

     Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the above return is the number of births as compared with the deaths in Portsea Island—the former nearly doubling the latter. The mortality, too, has not been above the average, and the Registrar-General’s figures generally show that in Portsmouth the number of deaths is below that of almost all the important towns in England. The ‟south- eastern” counties, of which Hampshire is one, have been the healthiest during the past quarter, and if the rate of mortality in Portsmouth has been slightly—and it is but very slightly—in excess of the average of the ‟district,” it is not a matter for surprise, seeing that this borough is the most densely-populated in these counties, and labours under some disadvantages from which most of the other towns are exempt. But if we compare Portsmouth with some other boroughs, either similarly-circumstanced or well-known as ‟fashionable” towns, we shall find that our own does not suffer by such comparison. During the last quarter the mortality of Portsmouth was at the rate of 5.8 per thousand; in Brighton, it was 7.0; in the Isle of Wight (perhaps the healthiest locality in England), it was only 4.7; in Bath, 7.0; in Bristol, 8.1; in Cheltenham, 6.3; in Southampton, 7.6; in Plymouth, 9.0; in Scarborough, 6.3; in Hastings, 6,5. Last week the annual rate of mortality in 13 of the principal towns in England was as follows:—London, 25 per 1,000; Edinburgh, 27; Dublin, 26; Bristol, 26; Birmingham, 28; Liverpool, 38; Manchester, 32; Salford, 36; Sheffield, 28; Leeds, 33; Hull, 26; Newcastle-on-Tyne, 29; Glasgow, 37. We are not aware that during last week the mortality was unusually high, but it will be observed from the figures given above that the annual death-rate last quarter in Portsmouth was only 23.2, which is below that of any of the 13 towns during the last week. Compared with Plymouth, Portsmouth stands out in bold relief. In the former town (we speak of ‟Plymouth” proper), with a population of 62,599, the number of deaths was 567, whereas in Portsea Island, with it population of 94,828, the deaths numbered 559 only. We ought, injustice to Plymouth, to state that in the districts of Charles-the- Martyr and St. Andrew the deaths have been greatly in excess of the average, but making allowance for this fact, the mortality has been far greater than that of Portsmouth. In Salisbury the mortality was at the rate of 6.1 per thousand, and in Chichester it was as low as 4.6. We might mention many other towns with which Portsmouth would bear an equally favourably comparison; but the above may be sufficient to demonstrate the fact that our mortality is far below the average. And if, with defective drainage, such be our position, may we not hope when that extensive system which is being so vigorously carried on by the local authorities is completed, that Portsmouth will be one of the healthiest boroughs in the United Kingdom?