reparative agencies,—first, the decrease of pauperism
concurrent with the general diffusion of employment;
secondly, the establishment of civil and social order,
evidenced by the decrease of crime; thirdly, the
increasing solvency of the landed proprietary, concurrent
with the improvement of agriculture. The number of
paupers in the workhouses has decreased from 86,303 in
1851, to 50,938 in 1853; and the average rates are now
estimated at no more than 1s. 8d. in the pound. These
effects are mainly referred to the excellent industrial
system now adopted in the Irish workhouses, and to the
increased demand for labour. Crime has also diminished
in quantity and quality; as is shown by the lessened
business of the assizes. The increased solvency of the
landed proprietary has been caused by the Encumbered
Estates Court. A return made last April showed the
number of cases transferred from Chancery to the court
to be no less than 974; of which number 19 have been
more than forty years and 135 more than twenty years
in Chancery, and, probably, would have remained there
for a score of years longer but for this intervention.
From the 31st of October 1849, to the end of July 1853,
2878 petitions have been presented, 654 being from the
owners themselves. The Commissioners have sold
1,691,000 acres, or one-twelfth of the area of Ireland,
estimated by the Ordnance survey at 20,316,979 acres
exclusive of water. The total produce of the sales is
£10,429,893 5s. 1d., within one million of the total
annual valuation of the country. Deducting one-
ninth, which is about the proportion allowed to
encumbrancers who become purchasers, it would
appear that nine millions and a quarter have been
reproductively invested: 1081 encumbered owners have
been replaced by 4213 solvent purchasers; thus
quadrupling the number of proprietors in a country
throughout a great part of which there have been no resident
gentry. Up to the 31st July last year the proportion
was only treble. Of these purchasers—2718, or two-
thirds of the whole number, are small capitalists or
farmers, none of whose purchases exceeded £2000, thus
aiding in the formation of a middle class, so indispensable
to civil security and social prosperity in Ireland.
English and Scotch have invested in every part of the
country, except the northern counties of Sligo, Armagh,
and Londonderry. The number of English purchasers
is 181, a twenty-third of the whole number. The
amount of their investment, £1,779,608 12s. 6d., or one-
sixth of the total produce of the sales; the quantity
purchased, 496,936 acres, or upwards of two-sevenths of
the total acreage sold. Up to the same date last year
the comparative proportions were respectively, as to
number, 1-25th; as to amount, 1-10th; and, as to
quantity sold, somewhat under 2-7ths. Still, though
British purchasers are steadily on the increase, the
number is too small to awaken the jealousy of invidious
objectors; while the very large amount invested justified
the expectation of further accessions of capital to develop
those ample resources now brought into the market.
Making especial reference to Connaught, Mr. Locke
expressly said that the improvement of the Western
Highlands of Ireland will have been brought about by
British capital and British emigration. Among other
valuable papers was one by Mr. Calvert on the
production of gold in the British Island, and one by
Mr. Nicolay on the importance of certain places in the
Pacific with reference to great circle routes across the
ocean. It was resolved that the Association should
meet at Liverpool in 1855. The Earl of Harrowby was
elected President for that year; and Colonel Sabine was
appointed to the office of General Secretary, vacant by
the resignation of Dr. Royle.

The threatened visitation of cholera is proving a
stimulus to Sanitary Measures. The medical officer of
the City Court of Sewers has reported to that body
upon the state of nuisances connected with the altered
system of slaughtering in Newgate Market. From this
we learn, that the slaughterers who have been driven
out of their cellar slaughterhouses in the City, have
become sharers in the registered slaughterhouses in
Newgate Market; so that these have assumed the
character of public slaughter-houses. There are twenty
such places, and no fewer than 141,800 animals are
annually slaughtered there. This is a great nuisance
to the neighbourhood. The medical officer recommends
new regulations with a view to prevent the use of
slaughterhouses except by their owners, and to put an
end to the removal of offal at any hour of the day. As
a justification of such a step, the Court is referred to the
fact that Asiatic cholera has broken out at Newcastle in
an epidemic form. At a subsequent meeting of the
Court, this report was referred to the Committee for
General Purposes, with the view of carrying out its
recommendations.—The Holborn Board of Guardians
have found that the provisions of the Nuisances-Removal
and Diseases-Prevention Act are inadequate to suppress
all the nuisances brought under their notice. They have
applied, therefore, to the Poor-law Board for direction;
and have received the following reply from the Secretary.
"I am directed to state, that the Board have had the
subject of the representations made to them under their
consideration; and are of opinion that the Guardians
have no power or authority which will enable them to
remedy the evils referred to, except as arising under the
statute 2nd and 3rd of Victoria, c. 71, s. 41, or the
Nuisances-Removal Acts, 11th and 12th Victoria, c. 123,
and 12th and 13th Victoria, c. 111. The first of these
statutes gives a remedy against the occupiers of any
house which is duly certified to be in such a filthy and
unwholesome condition that the health of the immediate
neighbourhood is thereby affected or endangered: but,
in cases where the occupiers of the premises are very
poor, the remedy would probably be of very little avail
to the Guardians. If, however, complaints are made to
the Guardians by two or more householders, or certificates
laid before them by the medical or relieving-officers
as to the filthy and unwholesome condition of the
premises, in conformity with the provisions of the two
latter statutes, which admit of proceedings being taken
against the owners as well as the occupiers, the Board
see no reason why a remedy may not be obtained, so far
as to place the premises in a good state, by abating the
nuisances referred to." The ratepayers of the parish
of Lambeth, assembled in Vestry, have resolved to
purchase thirty acres of land at Wandsworth to form a
parochial cemetery; they are to pay £300 an acre for it.
The Gazette of the 16th inst. contains an Order in
Council, putting in force the Nuisances-Removal and
Diseases-Prevention Act; giving as a reason, that "the
United Kingdom appears to be threatened with a
formidable epidemic disease."—The General Board of
Health has issued special directions and regulations for
the use of local bodies and the public in general. Their
purport is briefly as follows:—Union and parish guardians
are to make out, from medical and other information,
lists of places where diseases lately prevailed, or at
present prevail; and then to direct the medical officer to
examine the health of the people in those places. The
guardians are also to superintend the cleansing of
public ways and places; to cleanse them themselves, if
the proper authorities fail; to direct individuals to cleanse
particular nuisances near their respective dwellings;
to visit dwellings in parishes or unions, where there
is no "governing body;" to remove nuisances
themselves, where the owners are too poor to do it or to do
it quickly; to provide medical visitation, from house to
house, wherever an epidemic, is present or imminent;
to provide hospitals for poor sick people; to provide
general medical superintendence for sanitary action;
to print handbills publishing the official and other
useful instructions; and to supply the Board of Health
with a daily list of persons attacked by any epidemic
disease, with particulars of their cases and treatment.
All local bodies having the care of public ways or
places are to see to the "continued cleansing" of such
ways and places as the medical officers report in a state
dangerous to health. The medical officer of each
district or union is instructed to visit the unhealthy places
reported by the guardians, and examine the houses, with
a sanitary view; to inquire into the health of people in
workshops, common lodging-houses, and schools, and
to treat, by himself or others, all cases of diarrhœa in
those places; to report to the guardians all nuisances;
to report at once any unusual amount of diarrhœa, and
any case of epidemic or contagious disease; to order
the separation of the inmates or other necessary
measure in schools, workhouses, or lodging-houses, where