n, which may account for none of its provisions having yet been
carried out. The project now is to supersede that bill by another,
which is to extend the practice of cemetery interment. This looks like
a want of faith in sanitary principles. On the other hand, the sale of
the lazaretto at Marseilles, with a view to construct docks on its
site, is a proof that the French government can do something in the
way of sanitary reform. It is, in fact, quite time that the
superstitious notions about infection, and the vexations of
quarantine, should give place to sounder views and more rational
methods. Meantime, as meteorologists say, we are coming to the cycle
of hot summers, it behoves us more than ever to bury the dead far from
towns. The Registrar-General tells us that, on the whole, we are
improving, and it is not less an individual than a national duty to
forward the improvement. According to the return just published for
the quarter ending December last, the births in 1851 amounted to
616,251, the largest number ever registered, being an excess of 5 per
cent. over former returns. The deaths were 385,933, leaving a surplus
which increases the population of England and Wales to more than
18,000,000. In the same quarter, 59,200 emigrants, chiefly Irish, left
the kingdom. With respect to marriages, which also exceed in number
those of former years, the Registrar repeats what he has often said
before, that marriages increase 'when the substantial earnings of the
people are above the average; and the experience of a century, during
which the prosperity of the country, though increasing, has been
constantly fluctuating, shews that it is prudent to husband the
resources of good times against future contingencies. Workmen, if they
are wise, will not now squander their savings.' Are we to infer from
this, that a bad time is coming?

I have at times given you some of our post-office statistics, let me
now send you a few from America. The postmaster-general reports to
Congress, that in the year ending last June there were within the
United States 6170 mail-routes, comprising a length in the aggregate
of 196,290 miles; of post-offices, 19,796; of mail-contractors, 5544.
The distance travelled in the year over these routes was 53,272,252
miles, at a cost of 3,421,754 dollars, or rather more than six cents
per mile per annum. On more than 35,000,000 of these miles the service
is performed by coaches, and 'modes not specified;' the rema