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18
be regarded as greater, because we have let this
crime spring up amongst institutions, which, if
properly worked, are capable of preventing its
terrible progress.
Amidst all the existing causes of disease, and
death, and the loss of life by preventible causes, it is
something to find that the average of births still continue
above the average of death. It has been sometimes
ignorantly assumed that an excess of births
over deaths is an embarrassment to a community;
but if persons holding such an opinion will reflect
that all wealth is the result of human labour, then
the larger the number of human beings the greater
the means by which wealth may be accumulated
in the community. At the same time, it should
bo remembered that in parishes situated as St.
James's, Westminster, it is impossible to increase
the numbers within the limits of the parish without
overcrowding, and its consequences, disease and
death. The excessive mortality of the Berwick
Street division may, in some measure, be due to
the fact, that the population increases more rapidly
than the people can pass to other neighbourhoods.
The following Table present in the parish for the last ten years:—
Years.
No.
Years.
No.
1850,
889
1855,
892
1851,
946
1856,
973
1852,
917
1857,
973
1853,
926
1858,
921
1854,
941
1859,
951