Now something occurs, and he says like a ninny, And then something else, and he still is more willing, Then it is but a penny, it is but a mite, Till the 'tis buts at last sum up-ruin outright. But for my part I ever these maxims would take, That a little and little a mickle will make; Take care of the shillings, those vain wand'ring elves, And the pounds, my good friend, will take care of themselves. If you quarter the road, you avoid the great ruts, And you'll run on quite smooth, if you mind the 'tis buts. Contentment's the object at which we should aim, It is riches and power and honour and fame, For our wants and our comforts in truth are but few, If you'd thrive, keep an eye to the main-and 'TIS BUTS. We fear that it would be hard to inculcate these excellent maxims or the tribe of bards in general; far less make them practise the belly. pinching advice of Mrs. Makeitdo-a name conceived in the spirit of John Bunyan. How to make a Leg of Mutton, last a Week. Of Eight Tooth Mutton, Tredway's Boast, By Burning, Smoking, and such haps On Thursday, dress it how you please, You dine upon the Marrow Bone. Dine upon a marrow-bone! We must protest that we had much rather not, and advise our readers to be of the same opinion. Let them not, for example, be satisfied with this our marrow of the work of Kitchiner, but proceed at once to the whole joint itself; and from perusing it they will, we venture to say, rise up wiser and better men. A butcher, who has resided many years at the corner of Titchfield and Great Mary-le-bone Streets. M. CHATEAUNEUF'S REPORT ON VACCINATION.* THE mortality of children is much less at present, in France and in its capital, than it was in the last century; particularly, from the birth to the age of five years. In the last half of the last century, and before the introduction of vaccination, the deaths of children up to five years of age were in the proportion of 50,579 in 100. Since the beginning of the present century, and the introduction of vaccination, the proportion of deaths in children of the same age (from the birth to five years old) has been reduced to 37,855 in 100. As vaccination preserves every year a certain number of children from the danger of dying of the small-pox, this diminution of the mortality of children in the first five years of infancy ought to be in part attributed to the action of this preservative, and the effect of which would be considerably greater were the practice to be more generally adopted. But it is far from being as general as it ought to be; for, in the four departments, from the returns of which we have made out new tables of mortality, the number of children vaccinated since 1811 has only been equal to one half the number born: throughout all France the proportion has not risen above three-fifths; and in the capital it has only amounted to a seventh. It is extremely difficult to form an idea of the number of children preserved by vaccination; and, indeed, it never can be exactly determined, from the total want of those tables which make known what was in France before the revolution the amount of mortality, age for age, as well as that caused by the small-pox: without such information, we can only calculate problematically the question which is the object of this memoir. To avoid the vagueness of theories, and the errors resulting from reasoning thereon, it is necessary to confine ourselves to one fact alone, which is now well established, namely, the continual increase of births on the one hand, and the diminution of deaths the amount of the latter, so far from keeping pace with the population, presents a falling off of 240,000 from what it would be, according to the increased population, had the mortality been so great as formerly. For instance, forty years ago in France, a greater number of deaths took place out of a population of 24,000,000, than there now does out of a population of 30,000,000. In the year 1784, there died in France 818,000 persons; and in the year 1824, the number of deaths was only 760,000, whereas it ought, all proportions kept, to have been a million. Although these advantages-the diminished mortality amongst children, and the increase of population-evidently result in a great measure from the beneficial effects of vaccination, yet it would not be reasoning justly to attribute them exclusively to it; for it must be recollected that, about the period of its introduction into France, a considerable change had begun to take place in the laws, manners, and institutions of the country, in consequence of which, instruction and civilization have made the most immense progress. It is therefore M. Benouton de Chateauneuf, having been requested by the Institute of France to investigate the subject of the influence of vaccination on population, has just com pleted his researches, and presented a memoir to the academy. This request of the Institute evinces the importance they attach to the subject, and the high opinion they entertain of M. Chateauneuf, who is already known to the public by several essays and researches upon various statistical questions. but just to take into the account the combination of these last circumstances, and to appreciate the influence which they must have had, conjointly with vaccination, upon the lives of children and the march of population. The consequence of the ameliorated condition of the industrious and labouring classes, has been not only an augmentation of the population, but it has also led to an increase of the average duration of life. The lists of mortality recently published all show, that the number of individuals who attain to the age of sixty is much greater now than it was formerly. The increase is in the proportion of 25 in 100, instead of 14 in 100, for Paris; and 24 in 100, instead of 14, for the rest of France. It may not be uninteresting to mention, though not immediately attached to the subject of this memoir, that in consequence of the prolongation of the average duration of life, as found by the recent lists of mortality, all tontine and life insurance societies, and in a word, all species of establishments speculating upon the duration of man's existence, founded within the last ten years, and which have based their calculations upon the tables of Messrs. Devillard and Deparieux, must necessarily, from the increase in the average duration of life that has taken place, find themselves under the impossibility of fulfilling their engagements. Indeed, such has been the case already with more than one of them. Amongst many interesting facts stated in this memoir, the following are remarkable. Before a reformation had been introduced into the Hôtel Dieu, one fifth of the patients died, a mortality nearly twice as great as that which took place in the other hospitals in the kingdom. The deaths in the Hôtel Dieu, amounted every year to 3,000, which is something more than an eighth of the whole number of deaths in Paris. At present, from the many Improvements and ameliorations that have been effected, the mortality is not greater than one in seven. It was at the Hôtel Dieu alone that poor pregnant women went to lie-in: there, amidst a complication of human misery and infection, 1,400 of these unfortunate women were annually received. It often happened that one bed contained four of them in the hours of labour. The mortality, as it may be well supposed, was appalling, amounting in many instances to one-half the number. At present, at an admirably conducted institution, called L'Hospice de la Maternité, there are about 3,000 pregnant women annually received, of whom somewhat less than one in thirty perishes. From the reports of the council of public health, printed every year, it incontestibly appears, that the measures adopted by that administration to extinguish syphilitic disease, have been most successful. During the last twentyfive years it has diminished in the following progression. In 1800, one in nine of the women of the town was infected. In those parts of Paris inhabited by the richer classes, one-sixth of the children die the first year; while, in the quarters occupied by the poor, one third of the children die before the end of the year. Before five years, more than one-half of the children of the poor perish; while the loss among those of the rich does not amount to one-third. In fine, at the end of ten years, one-third of the children of the rich, and threefifths of the children of the poor, will have died.* It was calculated formerly that in France but a seventh of a generation, or fifteen persons in a hundred, arrived at the age of sixty. At present the proportion is twenty-four, and the general mortality, which was one in twenty-nine, is now one in forty. ON THE DECLINE OF THE BRITISH DRAMA. AFTER all that has been, for some years past, said and written on the decline of the British Drama, the cause of this degeneracy remains still to be assigned. Critics have admitted and deplored, but have seldom attempted to explain it; and in the few brief inquiries which, from time to time, they have been forced to make on this, one of the most interesting subjects in our literature, they have been far from successful. Nor is this failure matter of much surprise. It is always a difficult task to trace and to explain the changes which occur in the taste and genius of a people. And this difficulty lies not merely in discovering the causes (which must always be many and complex), but also in assigning to each its due share of importance. To perform this completely, and with certainty, may be fairly pronounced impossible. The most that can be done is, to point out some striking circumstances, which have an indisputable influence on literature, though the precise amount of that influence, and the manner and degree in which it is affected by other kindred causes, cannot be wholly ascertained. But the present condition of the drama amongst us appears the more surprising, from the vast powers which have been exerted in other walks of the imagination. The history of our poetry can furnish few periods so remarkable for fertility, variety, and vigour as the last thirty years. For more than a century preceding, the flights of the muse were confined to the middle and lower regions. Her movements, though graceful, were timid and measured. Once or twice some efforts were made at those lofty and adventurous courses which marked the sublime and daring spirit of former times; but these attempts were not much ap In the admirable parliamentary report on Benefit Societies, will be found calculations on infant deaths, and other similar matters of high importance, and to which we shall allude hereafter.-EDIT. proved of, and were deemed too perilous to be often hazarded. For the present age the glory was reserved of proving that the force, either of language or of invention, does not, as has been pretended, become impaired in proportion to the progress of refinement; and that a nation, in the very highest state of luxury and civilization, can give birth to productions which may vie with the most vigorous offsprings of her youth. These extraordinary powers, applied to other kinds of poetry, while in the drama so little has been achieved, have made some suppose, that the faculties requisite for this species of writing do not exist in the present race of poets; and "the dearth of dramatic genius" is an expression, which has become common in ordinary conversation. This notion derives some support from an opinion* which, strangely enough, has found favour with some persons. It is supposed that, as the world grows older, dramatic writing ought naturally to become more easy and to advance in excellence. New relations, it is said, are constantly arising, which create new sympathies among mankind. The passions, though in all ages the same, are presented in new and multiplied situations. Not only do characters become more various, but the same characters are oftener seen and more easily observed and known. In short, human nature, the sphere of the drama, grows (it is alleged) more extensive and diversified, more obvious and interesting; and from this it is thought not unfair to conclude, that dramatic poetry should become every day less difficult, more alluring, and more successful. They who adopt such a theory may find it difficult to reconcile the present langour of the drama with any other supposition than that in our island dramatic genius has declined;" and that when the whole garden of nature is shooting up around us in luxuriant and multiplied riches, we want the taste to cull, and the power to arrange its productions. In the first place, this opinion seems to be contradicted by the facts in the literature of both ancient and modern times. After the age of Eschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles, tragedy hardly lifted her head in Greece; and yet great progress was made in knowledge and civilization after that period. Oratory, political science (such as the ancients possessed), and philosophy, were long in a state of constant improvement. Commerce, wealth, population increased, and with these the relations among men must have increased also in number and variety. And what is material for our argument, the Greeks were continually enlarging their acquaintance with the rest of mankind. In modern nations, with the single exception of Italy (for German literature has not long left its cradle), the first efforts of the dramatic muse have not been equalled in succeeding times. But the best days of Italy were long past before her tragedy could be said to have found a national poet; and in its higher branches it can hardly be deemed to have approached near to originality until almost the present age. For many generations Spain cannot be said to have produced a tragic poet able to shed even a glimmering light upon the dreary waste which has succeeded to the splendid literature of her early days. In France, from the age of Corneille to the present hour, the writers of the drama have been rivetting upon themselves those fetters which a cold and timid taste had imposed. While this restraint continues, improvement See the Quarterly Review, No. 57, p. 29, et seq. |