fined to certain localities; while, at the same time, there has been a decreased mortality in other parts of the kingdom, appears from a given table. The counties in which there has been the greatest increase of mortality, compared with that of 1838 and 1839, are Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, West Riding of Yorkshire, Leicestershire, Cheshire, Glocestershire, Northumberland, Durham, Derbyshire, and North Wales, the combined increase of which alone amounts to 15,231, out of the total' increase of 19,097. The prevalence of such increased mortality in those counties, which comprise the largest proportion of manufacturing population, naturally suggests that the cause may probably be found in circumstances to which the manufacturing classes have been peculiarly exposed. But a further examination shows, that not only has the increase varied very much within those counties, but that there has even been a decreased mortality in some of those districts which are peculiarly the seats of manufacture. Such has been the case in Manchester and Salford, Ashton, Oldham, Stockport, and Leeds. Therefore, though manufacturing distress cannot be excluded from among the possible causes of increased mortality, care must be taken not to assign such mortality to this one cause in an undue degree. It appears from the evidence of the entries in the register-books, and the reports of superintendent registrars, that this increased mortality is attributable chiefly to the prevalence of epidemics, especially of typhus and scarlet fever, and that the districts of Chorley, Leigh, Wigan, Burnley, and Blackburn, in Lancashire; Macclesfield, Dewsbury, Pontefract, Nottingham, Bingham, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Bangor, and Beaumaris, are those in which these diseases have been fatal to the greatest extent. The great increase in the number of marriages, an increase amounting to 12,848, over those registered in the year 1837 '8, compared with the much smaller increase, amounting only to 3,246, over those of the year 1838 '9, confirms the statement made in my second report, that the number in 1837 '8 must not be considered as an average number, but that there was a deficiency in that year, attributable to the change in the law; many marriages, as I was informed, having, under a misapprehension of the object and effect of the Act for Marriages, been solemnized immediately before that act came into operation. Of the increase, amounting to 3,246, over the registered marriages of the year 1838, 9, more than half may be regarded as the natural result of increased population. It is calculated that the population of England and Wales, at the middle of the latter of the above-mentioned years of registration, namely, Jan. 1, 1839, exceeded by not less than 225,000 the population on Jan. 1, 1838; and as the ordinary proportion of marriages to population is nearly 8 annually to every 1,000 persons, more than 1,700 marriages may be ascribed to the increase of the population; and the excess, independent of such increase, will thus be reduced to little more than 1,500. In the abstract of marriages I have included the numbers of each sex married under 21 years of age, which were 6,100 men and 17,909 women, being in proportion to the whole number married 4.90 per cent. and 14.40 per cent. respectively. This proportion is in a slight degree higher than in the preceding year, when the numbers were 5,628 men and 16,414 women, and the proportions 4.64 and 13.55. The results exhibited by this table correspond very closely with those stated in my report of the preceding year. I then mentioned, as the counties in which early marriages appeared to prevail, Hertford, Bedford, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Northampton, Leicester, and Essex. The same, with the addition of Wiltshire, are the eight counties in which, in the succeeding year, are the largest proportion of men married under the age of 21. The results are also similar in these two years respecting those portions of the kingdom in which early marriages have been most rare. I have in my second report endeavored to throw light upon the state of education, with respect to writing, among the adult population of England and Wales, by showing the proportion per cent. in the metropolis, in each English county, and in North and South Wales, of persons married in the year ending June 30th, 1840, who, instead of writing their names in the marriage register, have signed with marks. It appears from a table given, that in thirteen English counties, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and in Wales, more than 40 per cent. of the men married did not write their names; and that in nineteen English counties, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and in Wales, the same fact existed with respect to more than half the women; and it appears from an abstract of marriages, that in the whole of England and Wales, out of 124,329 couples, there were 41,812 men and 62,523 women, who, it is to be presumed, either could not write, or wrote very imperfectly. If the table for the year ending June 30, 1840, had shown results differing widely from those of the preceding year, it might reasonably have been suspected, that such returns were not likely to have become valuable and safe criterions of the comparative state of education, that they are drawn from too small a portion of the whole population, and are too much influenced by accident. Such, however, is not the case. A comparison of such table with a similar table in my second report, (it is stated,) will show a remarkably close correspondence in the results, not only for the whole kingdom, but in the metropolis, and every considerable group of counties. This will be evident from the following comparison of the mean proportion for the respective years: It appears, that, tried by the returns of these two years, every county occupies nearly the same relative position, and many of them precisely the same. The coincidence sufficiently proves that the test is one which must not be disregarded, but may be found a valuable and safe criterion of the comparative state of education. But I must add, that it is only from a comparison much more extensive than that of the returns of two years, that the superiority or inferiority of particular portions of the kingdom can with fairness be inferred; and that I do not yet attempt to found any opinion of that kind upon such evidence only as is comprised in the foregoing statements. NEW COMPOSITION FOR CAULKING SHIPS. MR. JEFFREY, the inventor of a new composition for caulking and strengthening ships, of which experiments have been made on the Thames, having made known his invention to the Ordnance Department, experiments for testing its properties were made under their directions. On the 5th of May an appointment was made by Lieutenant-General Lord Bloomfield, with a large number of the officers of the Royal Artillery, to meet Mr. Jeffrey at the Observatory, near the Royal Military Repository at Woolwich, for the purpose of obtaining further information respecting the invention, and of the nature of the material used. A large number of distinguished officers assembled in the large room to hear the explanations relative to this important discovery. Mr. Jeffrey commenced his details by exhibiting pieces of copper covered with the composition, to show that it was equally applicable to the preservation of metals from the effects of salt water as it was to wood, preventing, when mixed with certain materials, the adhesion of barnacles or other shellfish, so injurious to wood or to copper when not properly prepared, or which may, from some unexplained cause, have lost its power of protection from the attacks of marine insects and shell-fish. A block was next exhibited, fixed together, composed of three pieces, having on one side of the centre-piece about three-quarters of an inch of the composition, and on the other side a similar thickness of the substance at present generally used for vessels in the naval and mercantile service. This block had been submitted to a pressure of twenty-two tons, to show the effect that would be produced in very cold climates. The new composition under that pressure retained its softness, but the present caulking materials became as brittle as rosin, and could be broken into powder by the slightest strain or sharp blow upon it, which would have no effect upon the new composition. Two pieces of teak wood, which had before been joined together and tested with a strain of twenty-one tons by the hydraulic machine in the dockyard, were then exhibited, and it was astonishing to witness the strong and sound iron bolts of 1 1-2 inch in diameter, which had broken without the least symptom of the material with which the pieces were joined yielding to the great power applied with the object of tearing them asunder. Another block, formed of three pieces joined together, so as to present angles which would be sure to give great force against the joinings in whatever position it might fall to the ground, was exhibited to show that it had received no injury, although it had been thrown from the top of the shears in the dockyard, seventy-six feet high, on the hard granite below. During the time Mr. Jeffrey was making these explanations, in order to show the quickness with which the new composition could be made available, he joined two pieces of wood with it, and another piece he broke and fixed again in its rough state, and in about fifteen minutes he submitted them for the purpose of being broken, which could only be effected by breaking with a hammer the solid wood on each side. Mr. Jeffrey concluded his details by expressing the obligations he felt under to the Lords of the Admiralty, to Captain Sir Francis Collier, Kt., C. B., and K. C. H., and Mr. Oliver Lang, Master Shipwright of Woolwich Dockyard, and the other master shipwrights forming the committee, without whose assistance he would not have been able to carry out his invention to the satisfactory extent he had done. Lord Bloomfield, on the part of himself and the officers of the Royal Artillery, who were all highly gratified with what they had witnessed, returned thanks to Mr. Jeffrey for the clear manner in which he had explained his invention, which appeared to be very valuable. LACE WEAVING MACHINES. A LATE Nottingham (English) Journal, gives the following interesting details of an important revolution which is about to be made in a branch of manufacture which employs a large number of persons in that vicinity : "A very serious and important change is now gradually commencing in the bobbin net trade. Hitherto the fancy lace trade branch, with but few exceptions, has been confined to the productions made from the traverse warp and the Levers' principle of machine; the pushers being in general confined to Grecian, and bullet-hole nets, the latter of which scarcely ever got footing in the market. The introduction of straight-down nets, by Harvey and Bryant, from their little five-point machine, has effected wonders, and it is not too much to say, that it has realized to this district nearly three millions sterling, which in all probability would never have come in, as hand machines without that important discovery were completely beat out of the market, and must have wholly succumbed to power produced nets. After essaying unsuccessfully nearly nine years, with but slight exceptions, to produce fancy nets of good patterns, the circular bolt and comb machines have at length succeeded, and we have seen patterns produced from that principle of machine, both in warp-ground and linenwork, which equal the productions from the Levers' machine. This subject is of immense importance to the "town and trade of Nottingham," as the greater part of the machines at work in the town and suburbs are con BLAXLAND'S SUBMARINE PROPELLER. The structed upon the Levers' principle, which are principally propelled by hand, though in many instances moved by a rotatory apparatus. circular machine is especially constructed to make traverse nets with facility, that is, where the bobbin threads cross each other diagonally in traversing transversely from selvage to selvage. Nets constructed upon this method will bear the ordeal of that great searcher of lace, the washtub, whereas nets untraversed, unless a considerable quantity of twist is inserted to tie the meshes, will not stand the test of the laundress. Hitherto every attempt to traverse the carriages in Levers' machines by rotatory apparatus, has been to a great extent unsuccessful; though several patents are now in force for traversing Levers' machines by rotatory apparatus, which methods have been several times described in our columns. The greater part of the Nottingham-made fancy nets are untraversed, the pusher-bars being wholly taken away from most of the machines, the fancy net being made by an extra quantity of guide-bars interwrapping, in various devices, the straight-down bobbin threads. At length the circular machines have overcome many impediments, and have succeeded in applying additional guide-bars wherewith to work in devices, and varied texture in the net, which has the advantage of being traversed. The most important part of this matter is now to come; hitherto the hand Levers' machines have had nearly a monopoly of this lucrative trade, which has been one of the main supports of this district. Now the power machines will come into competition, which are principally situated at Chard, Tiverton, Taunton, Barnstaple, Derby, and Chesterfield. It is true, there are power factories in Broad Marsh, Woolpack Lane, and Hockley, in this town, and at Carrington, Basford, Radford, and Lenton, in our immediate vicinity; but then they do not amount in the whole to much more than a third of the machines which are at work in the counties of Somerset, Devon, and Derby; as for Leicestershire, however extensive the bobbin net trade was in the year 1829, it has now become nearly extinct in that county. This subject, however unpleasant, we feel it our duty to revert to, and to put the machine owners upon the alert to meet the coming emergency." BLAXLAND'S SUBMARINE PROPELLER. AMONG the many inventions, the object of which has been to substitute for the old and avowedly disadvantageous system of paddle-wheels, some mechanical power which should act upon the stern of the vessel, and below the surface of the water, none has been hitherto formed more efficient in its working, or more completely overcoming the difficulties attending the problem, than that of Mr. Blaxland. The propeller itself is extremely simple in form, consisting of a variable number of arms radiating from the centre, the extremity of each arm being provided with a number of flat blades in close succession, and each being placed trans |