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of the place has been just double what it ought
to have been ; yet we are by no means assured that
in the first instance there has been a proportionate
saving of it. True it is, that the average death-rate
of the City of London Union is as low as 17.7 per
1,000 of the inhabitants ; but we must not lose sight
of the fact that many influences have been at work
in keeping down the proportion of deaths, which do
not strictly belong to the sanitary affairs of the
district. One of these arises out of a practice that
is universally followed by the better classes—
namely, that of avoiding as far as possible the
aggravating circumstances of a City life, and of
moving away into a more healthy district whenever
the hand of sickness is placed upon them. This
necessarily causes the exclusion of a large number
of deaths which rightly belong to the City returns;
and if these circumstances were not duly considered,
we should be disposed to imagine that the state of
the public health in the very heart of the metropolis
is actually better than it is in all England, or even
than it is in the average of our rural districts ; for,
according to the last Annual Report of the Registrar
General, the mortality of England is at the rate of
22.1 per 1,000, while that of town districts is 25.8,
and that of the country 20.3. It would therefore
appear from a superficial examination of these
numbers, that the vitality of the City Union is
actually 21 per cent. better than that of England
generally, and 15 per cent. better than that of