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the passing of the Metropolis Management Act, 1855, supplemented
as that Act has been by others, entitled " Sanitary,"
"Nuisances Removal," etc. The effect of these Acts, as
carried out by the several local authorities, are apparent enough
in the reduced death-rate, by which London compares favourably
with the other great cities of the civilized world.
The statistics at my command go back to 1841, and I find
that in the three quinquennial periods—1841-5, 1846-50 and
1851-55 respectively, the death-rate in London was 24"2; 25'4 ;
and 24"8 per 1000 persons living; or for the fifteen years prior to
the passing of the Metropolis Management Act, 1855, 24*8 per
1000. In the following fifteen years, 1856-70, the rate had fallen
to 23'9, the rate in the three five-yearly periods being—in 1856-60,
22'7; in 1861-65, 24*4; and in 1866-70, 24'3. In the next
fifteen years, 1871-85, the average rate fell to 21-3 per 1000;
the rate in the three quinquennial periods being—in 1871-75,
22-9; in 1876-80, 22*2; and in 1881-85, 20"7. In 1886 the
death-rate was 19*9; in 1887, 19"6 : in 1888 it further fell to
18'5, and in 1889 it was only ]7'4, the lowest rate recorded
since the present system of civil registration began. It is almost
needless to observe that this remarkable decline implies the
saving of many thousand lives, to say nothing of illnessesprevented.
It is not in my power to furnish a similar return, shewing
the results of the administration of the Acts in this Parish :
there are no statistics for the period antecedent to 1856, and the
figures relating to 1856- 60 are not reliable. But the statistics
for subsequent years may be trusted, and these years may be
grouped for comparison into quinquennial periods. The deathrate,
then, in the five years, 1861-65, was 20'3 per 1000 persons
living, that in 1866-70 being 20'2 per 1000. In 1871, upon
my appointment, a more vigorous sanitary administration was
organized by your Yestry, which soon began to produce good
results, for in the quinquennium, 1871-75, the death-rate iell to