If, however, offences against the person exhibits a favourable picture, those against property are not equally so. The number of cases of robbery, both with and without housebreaking, shows that the system of watch and ward needs some improvement. The other offences against property are few in number, and unimportant; but fires, supposed incendiary, are noticed. Reports of the Criminal Courts. Number of Cases. 1840 1841 1842 1843 Total I. Crimes against the Lives and Safety of the Inhabitants. 1 82 19 68 1832454521 19 1 38 40 34 28 140 2. Robbery without housebreaking (above 100 florins). 36 3. Robbery with housebreaking 4. Receivers of stolen goods 5. Issuing false money 829 52 :: 50 33 34 1 1 34 154 14 42 141 1 1 12213 I have already stated that the prices of all provisions are fixed by the police once a fortnight; and as the means and comforts of a people can best be appreciated by the quantity they can get for their money, I subjoin one of the official prices tax proclamations, from 29th February to 13th March, 1844: Beef and pork, therefore, are about 44d. English per lb.; veal not quite 4d.; and mutton 4d. The butcher is obliged to add an ounce (loth) to each lb. Beer is 8 kreutzers the mug, or quart. The price of flour per sack of 135 lbs. varies from 13 florins 8 kreutzers, to 6 florins 34 kreutzers, according to quality and the quantity of bran left in. Rye flour 7 florins 59 kreutzers per sack. In the same way the price of corn, hay, and straw, &c., is fixed. The florin is 1s. 8d.; the kreutzer of a penny; and the heller of a penny English. Railroad. It would scarcely be right to omit all mention of a public undertaking which is very creditable to Frankfort, not only for the manner in which it is managed, and the accommodation assured to the public, but to the cheapness of transit for individuals. It was commenced in 1837, and runs through three states, although only 43,350 metres long, from Frankfort via Kastel, to Bieberich. Hesse got 88,263 florins for its share of the ground, Nassau 327,813 florins, and Frankfort paid 93,497. The total cost of the ground was 523,623 florins; the buildings and construction 2,065,256 florins; the locomotives 495,207 florins; and at the end of 1840 there were 8 engines, 80 carriages, and 21 transport waggons in use. The cost of the administration 58,242 florins, which appears singularly economical. There are 4 classes of payers, the whole distance from Frankfort to Weisbaden being 2 florins 42 kreutzers; 1 florin 48 kreutzers; 1 florin 15 kreutzers; and 51 kreutzers. In the year 1839 the persons who passed were 61,766, and the money received 16,464 florins. In 1840 the numbers were 658,564 persons, and the receipts 338,374 florins: the outlay for 1840 was 140,787 florins. The whole outlay from 1837 to 1840, including the 3,000,000 of capital, in 12,000 shares of 250 florins each, was 3,491,059 florins; and the whole outlay, including dividends and a balance of 74,795 florins, at the end of 1840, amounted to the same sum. Public confidence fluctuated exceedingly from 1837 to 1840-the 100 florin shares varying from 164 in May, 1837, to 103 in January, 1839. In December, 1840, the 100 florin share had risen to 131; and it is progressively increasing, and in February, 1844, it was nearly 148 florins. I have now exhibited a statistical picture, in which the social body is portrayed as a piece of mechanism, the several parts of which are to perform their respective functions according to the laws prescribed for their operation: there is not to be any increase nor any diminution of action; nothing is to go out of its course. There is no doubt, a community so acting mechanically is free from many of those evils to which the unimpeded industry, speculation, and impulses of men give rise. There are few great crimes; indeed, there has been but one execution in Frankfort (for murder) since 1793; comparatively few offences against persons and property; no external and offensive indications of pauperism; immorality is veiled from the public eye; and a general appearance of well-being seems to obtain. But there is no progress ; man in his social relations is at a stand-still; the past is the present, and the present is the future, both for the state and its citizens. No doubt such a state of things exhibits a certain amount of good, which may constitute an Utopia for the money-changer, the bill-broker, the commission agent, and even the merchant and banker; but which must be abhorrent to the lofty aspirations of the philosopher, the philanthropist, and the statesman, who look confidently to gradual amelioration in the moral, intellectual, and physical condition of men, societies, and states. PROCEEDINGS OF THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. First Ordinary Meeting, 1844-45, Monday, 18th November, 1844. Lieut.-Colonel SYKES, V.P., in the Chair. The following gentlemen were elected : Thomas Tooke, Esq., V.P., announced to the meeting the titles of the papers read before the Statistical Section of the meeting of the British Association for the advancement of Science at York. A paper by Dr. Balfour, of the Grenadier Guards, was read, entitled, "A Comparison of the Sickness, Mortality, and prevailing Diseases among Seamen and Soldiers, as shown by the Naval and Military Statistical Report." PERIODICAL TABLES. The following set of Tables for the Quarter ended 30th September, 1844, is characterized by some omissions which require explanation. In the Table showing the "Mortality" of the country at large, the columns showing the number of deaths registered annually, in each district, in the several years from 1838 to 1843 inclusive, are omitted, but they will be found already entered in Part III., p. 271. The Table of the "Prices of Provisions, Fuel, &c." is omitted, because few of the returns from which it had to be abstracted, were received at the office of the Poor Law Commissioners at the date of our sending the rest to press. The abrupt termination of theCurrency" Tables is caused by the provisions of the Act of the last Session (6 and 7 Vic. c. 32) requiring the issue of such returns only as do not supply the means of continuing them in their present form. In the next number they will be recommenced from the date of their termination, in the form enforced by the recent changes. BILLS OF MORTALITY. "The quarterly returns are obtained from 115 districts, sub-divided into 576 Subdistricts. Thirty-four districts are placed under the metropolis, and the remaining 81 districts comprise, with some agricultural districts, the principal towns and cities of England. The population was 6,578,912 in 1841.” The deaths registered in the last quarter (ending September 30th) were 38,784; or 141 less than the deaths (38,925) in the June quarter; and 1701 more than 37,083, the average of five previous September quarters. Allowing for the increase of population, the mortality will be found to be about the average of the summer quarter, (July, August, September); that quarter being now the least fatal in the year. The deaths in the Metropolis amounted to 11,825; which are 354 more than were registered in the spring quarter, and 694 above the average uncorrected for the increase of population. Small-pox and Scarlatina were both epidemic. The deaths from Small-pox in the first week of the quarter were 36, in the last 37; from Scarlatina 58 in the first week, 85 in the last, and 99 in the tenth. Measles was fatal but to a small extent; Typhus showed a tendency to increase, for the deaths from this disease, including what is sometimes called "common continued fever," and "fever," amounted to 424; while the average is 352. In the country districts the most remarkable increase of mortality occurred in Cornwall; in the Redruth and Penzance districts the following were the results of registration :Average Annual Deaths in 5 Summer Quarters. Deaths in the 419 475 Measles and Hooping Cough prevailed in both the districts. Small-por has been epidemic in many districts all over the kingdom, and has proved fatal to great numbers, whose vaccination had been neglected. The return includes the deaths of nine persons who were suffocated or trampled to death at Nottingham, whilst witnessing a public execution. At Stockport six persons were accidentally killed by the falling of a wall during a heavy storm of rain. The mean temperature at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, was 58°.9, or 2° lower than the mean temperature of Greenwich on an average of twenty-five years. The mean of the highest temperature of day was 66°.9, the mean of the lowest temperature of night 51°.4; the difference 15° 5. The highest temperature attained in the sun was 115° in the week ending July 27th; the lowest temperature on the grass in the same week was 40°.5; the temperature of the air ranged in the same week from 85° 1 to 53°.7. In the 13 weeks the lowest temperature of the air was 40° 6; of the grass on the ground 30°.0. The difference between the dew point and air temperature was 5°.3. The fall of rain was 5.38 inches. Districts in which the Mortality was GREATER than the mean mortality of the corresponding quarter in the same district. -The west, north, and south district of the Metropolis, Portsea Island, St. Albans, Wycombe, Bedford, Colchester, Plymouth, Redruth, Penzance, Stroud, Hereford, Shrewsbury, Kidderminster, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Aston, Coventry, Nottingham, Liverpool, West Derby, Blackburn, Chorlton, Bradford, Merthyr-Tydfil. Districts in which the Mortality was less than the average Mortality of the corresponding quarter in the same districts.-Central districts of the metropolis, Norwich, Devizes, Exeter, Basford, Stockport, Macclesfield, Great Boughton, Bury, Prescot, Salford, Ashton, Sheffield, Hull, Sunderland, Tynemouth, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Pontypool, Wrexham. VOL. VII.-PART IV. 2 B MORTALITY OF THE COUNTRY. Quarterly Table of the Mortality in 115 of the Districts of England (including the principal Towns) showing the Number of Deaths registered in the Six Years, the Average Number of Deaths in the Five Summers, 1838-42, and the Number of Deaths in the Summer Quarter of 1844, ending 30th September (continued from p. 272.) The deaths in the Metropolis for the years 1840-1-2 have been derived from the weekly tables, the Returns for each year comprising 52 weeks, or 364 days. The last quarter in the metropolis ended Sept. 28, 1844. The returns from other places are for the years ending December 31, and the quarter ending Sept. 30. + Wandsworth District is included in the return for the Metropolis. |