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in 1878 it is 15.3 per 1,000. London suffers in this respect as all
other places suffer, but not in so marked a degree as the towns in
Durham and Northumberland and other mining counties, where the
marriage rate has decreased to an alarming extent. Nor can we
expect that at present, at any rate, this can improve. Perhaps in
London we scarcely realise what this decrease of the marriage rate
means in its fulness. Nor is it my duty to dwell upon it, for it is
a subject for the moralist rather than for the sanitarian; and yet
for the sanitarian too, these facts have a deep significance, which
must be apparent to every thoughtful man. We must do our best
to prevent all the diseases that can be prevented:—and to my mind,
with these facts before us, taken in conjunction with the present
terrible depression in commerce and agriculture, and the necessary
results of such depression, there is a voice crying in our midst with
no uncertain sound, which, however some may pooh-pooh by
urging sentimental difficulties and even religious objections to its
orthodoxy, and others may tell us is the voice of the serpent
rather than that of the Author of Good, nevertheless speaks to us in
words of gradually increasing intensity, and if we neglect it Ave
neglect it at our peril, "Let not the innocent suffer for the guilty."
It is no use to tell us about laws of Nature, for the whole of our
work in the world seems to be in some respects at least to alter and
to change these laws—not to improve them I admit, but to regulate
them. The same voice that spoke too of "Visiting the sins of the
fathers on the children," said also, "Vengeance is mine, I will
repay;" and for us to say "Let such and such things be, let us not
interfere with them, for they are the laws of God and not of man,"
appears to me to be arrogating to ourselves a right which is not
ours, claiming, in fact, Heaven as our throne, and Earth as our footstool,
and omitting that first great duty of humanity, to be doing
good in our generation. Men are always asking and always
answering in their own words that old old question of the schools,
"And who is my neighbour?" Because it is a law of nature that
man should die, should we cease to endeavour to cure when he is
sick, or ceasc to prevent him as far as we can from being sick?
I say no more on this subject.