Dr. Duncan, in his work on Fecundity, Fertility, Sterility, etc., states that after a woman has borne 9 children, the pregnancies often follow each other in rapid succession; and that the danger increases. Advancing age is itself one of the dangers.

At present the mort. is greater among women whose lives are insured at the childbearing age than it is among men. And the prem. for the ins. of a pregnant woman is generally higher than the common tabular rates. The previous data show that the general risk of a first delivery in England is covered by a prem. of 16s. on 100, and of subsequent deliveries by a prem. of 8s.; the prem. of 10s. for each of 200 deliveries taken indiscriminately covers the common risks.-Farr.

In the 33rd R. of Reg.-Gen. pub. 1872, Dr. Farr again reverts to this subject, but appears to treat it more hopefully than in any of his previous papers. Childbirth is (he says) a physiological process, and under favourable conditions, where the mother has previously been taken proper care of, is attended with little danger. Unfortunately English mothers do not escape scatheless; nor can this be expected under existing circumstances. But there is evidence of improvement. In the four years 1847-50 no less than 59 mothers died to every 10,000 children born alive; in the four years 1867-70 the deaths had sunk to 45. He adds:

The error of collecting poor lying-in women into hospitals has been discovered, and to some extent discouraged; medical men have adopted wiser measures; they have taken greater precautions against infection; and midwives have been better taught. Still there is great room for improvement.

He then proceeds to review the statements and conclusions in Dr. Duncan's work, which we have already noticed under date 1870. He says in reference to the distinction of Dr. Duncan's in and of childbirth :

Pregnant women are subject to diseases like other women; they may be killed by accidents, and may be attacked by smallpox and scarlet fever, which in them almost invariably prove fatal. Women suffering from phthisis or heart disease, or other chronic diseases, bear children, and in the abstracts [of Reg.-Gen.] the deaths are referred to these fatal causes, to which, rather than to incidental childbirth, their deaths are attributable. Thus in add. to 3875 deaths from puerperal fever and the various accidents of childbirth [in 1870], 719 women died soon after childbirth-231 of smallpox or some other zymotic diseases; 138 of phthisis; 101 of heart disease; 41 women, who were returned as pregnant, prob. in the early stages also died of various diseases.

He says Dr. Le Fort's T. of the death-rate of women delivered at home, viz. 4'7 p. 1000, differs but little from the general English rate. For, while in 17 large English towns the mort. rate is 4'9, in 64 healthy country districts it is 4.3 in 1000. He quotes the results of obs. by various private practitioners. Thus Mr. J. Clarke reports the loss of 22 mothers by death on 3847 deliveries; Dr. Churchill, of 16 on 2548; and, as a set-off against these, he gives the result of the record compiled by Mr. G. Rigden of Canterbury, who, out of 4132 consecutive cases in midwifery, yields, as the result of his obs., 9 deaths -3 from convulsions and coma, from puerperal fever, I from heart disease, and I from a cause not stated. Finally:

Excluding such cases as death by smallpox, phthisis, and other fatal diseases not connected with childbearing, and correcting for defective specification, I am disposed to set down the mort. at present prevailing in England at not more than 5 deaths of the mothers to every 1000 deliveries, or of x in every 200 deliveries. Stillborn children may occasion death in childbirth, so that a correction should be made for their exclusion, and a correction of another kind is required for the births of twins and triplets to get the exact mort. of women in childbirth. Our tables, in their crude form, show the proportion of mothers dying to children born alive; the necessary corrections I have discussed in former reports. [BIRTHS.] [METRIA.] [PREGNANCY.] [PUERPERAL FEVER.]

CHILDREN.-In the divisions of life adopted by the Reg.-Gen. and the Census Commissioners, Children (as distinguished from "infants" below them, and "boys" and "girls" above them), are all who range from 5 to 10 years of age. The census of 1851 [England] gave the number of "Children" on this classification as 2,098,808; in 1861 the number was 2,350, 261; in 1871-not yet ascertained. CHILDREN, DISEASES OF.-The congenital malformations and developmental diseases of children rank as Order I in the Class of DEVELOPMENTAL DISEASES, and embrace premature birth, cyanosis, spina bifida, other malformations, and teething. The deaths in England from these causes show very little variation. In 1858 they were 12,412; in 1862, 12,787; in 1867, 14,666. Over a period of 15 years ending 1864, they averaged 995 per million of the pop. living.

The deaths in 1867 were thus divided: males, 8203; females, 6463. Of the males 7049 died under 1 year, and 8190 under 5; 9 between 5 and 10; 1 between 15 and 20; 2 between 20 and 25; and I between 25 and 30. Of the females, 5340 died under L year, and 6440 under 5; 12 between 5 and 10; 2 between 10 and 15; 3 between 15 and 20; 1 between 20 and 25; 3 between 25 and 35; and I between 35 and 40. The deaths at these more advanced ages owe their origin to diseases of childhood.

We propose to treat of the mort. of children more at large under INFAnt Mort. CHILDREN'S FORTUNES, INS. OF.-The English Co. for Ins. Children's Fortunes was projected in 1720. We have no details of the plan intended to be pursued; but it was prob. a system of endowment ins.

CHILDREN, INS. OF, AND INSURANCES FOR.-Between the years 1699 and 1712 various projects were put forward, having for their avowed object the Ins. of Children. These will be spoken of at large under LIFE INS., HIST. OF. We propose here to deal only with the modern phase of this branch of bus.

By the Common Law, an infant (that is a person under 21) cannot enter into a binding contract for anything not deemed a necessary, in relation to his station or condition. By the Act against Wagering Ins., 1774 (14 Geo. III c. 48), all ins. are prohibited in which the person effecting the pol. has not an interest in the life of the person ins. By the Friendly Societies Acts an infant may, however, enjoy all the benefits provided by asso. enrolled under them.

It was held in the case of Holmes v. Blogg, in 1818, that a pol. of ins. may be effected for the benefit of, and in the name of an infant upon his own life, or the life of another; but only upon the well-understood condition that upon attaining 21, any liability thereunder on the part of the former minor might be repudiated.

It was held in the case of Halford v. Kymer, before the Courts in 1830, that a parent has no insurable interest in the life of his child, for the word "interest" in the statute means pecuniary interest.

In a subsequent case Mr. Justice Bayley held that a father might ins. a son's life for the son's benefit.

The Anglo-Australian Ins. Asso., founded 1853, orig. a most comprehensive system of Ins. and Annu. for Children under the title of INFANT INS., of which the following were the main features:

Infant Assurances.-I. Deferred assu. on infant lives for £25 to £5000 on death at any time after 14 years of age. But should death occur before the age of 14, all the prems. would be returned. II. Provisional assu. from 1 year of age for £100 and upwards on death at any time after 14 years of age; with the payment of £25 p.c. of the sum assured, for funeral purposes, in the case of death before 14.

III. Deferred endowment assu. for £25 and up to £5000 to be received by the child on his attaining either of the following ages, or payable earlier in the event of death after 14: viz. 21, 30, 40, 50, or 60. Should death take place before 14 years of age, then the whole prems, would be returned.

IV. Legacy assu., securing to a child a certain legacy from £100 to £5000, payable on the death of an uncle, aunt, or other relative or friend, provided the child be then alive.

V. Endowments, from £25 to £5000, payable on attaining the ages of 14, 21, or 30, the whole of the prems. to be returned should the life fail before attaining the specified age."

Infant Annuities.-VI. Immediate annu, from £10 to £300 p.a. for life.

VII. Temporary annu. from £10 to £300 p.a., to continue from six months till 14 years of age, or from six months to 21 years of age.

VIII. Deferred annu. for £10 and upwards, payable for the remainder of life on the child attaining either of the following given ages: viz. 14, 21, 30, 40, 50, or 60. The whole prems. returned should death occur before attaining the given age.

IX. Assu. anuu., whereby £10 and upwards p.a. for the remainder of life is secured to the child on surviving either of the following specified ages: viz. 14, 21, 30, 40, 50, or 60. And also the sum of £25 and upwards payable at death at any time after 14 years of age, or the whole prems. returned if death occur before 14.

XII. Legacy annu., by which an income from £10 to £350 p.a. for life may be secured to a child after the death of an uncle, aunt, or other relative or friend.

All infant assu. effected under the age of ten carry universal pol., which will allow the assured to travel by sea or land, and reside in any part of the world, without extra prem., or consent of the directors, or forfeiture of pol.

Most ins. offices grant Endowment pol. These will be spoken of under ENDOWMENT

Ins.

Nearly all the industrial ins. offices grant pol. on the lives of children. The terms and conditions on which they are granted will be spoken of in our hist. of INDUSTRIAL INS. Regarding the practice, it may find some defence in the manufacturing districts, where every parent has an interest in the prospective earnings of his child; but it too frequently leads to the commission of the most unnatural of crimes. We have already referred to these under BURIAL CLUBS.

In 1867 a case was before the police courts wherein a nurse in charge of a child had ins. its life.

[ENDOWMENT INS.] [FRIENDLY Sos.] [IndustrIAL INS.] [INSUrable Interest.] CHIMNEY-SWEEPER'S CANCER.-A popular name of the Cancer, Scroti, or Munditorum, or Soot-wart. CHIMNEY-TAX [Hearth-money]—A Tax levied by 13 & 14 Chas. II. c. 10-1662; abolished by I Wm. & Mary, c. 10-1689. The returns obtained from this Tax formed one of the bases upon which early estimates of the pop. of England were formed. [CENSUS.] [POPULATION.] CHIMNEYS.-Chimneys are said to have been first introduced into our architecture about A. D. 1200. They were then confined to the kitchen and the large hall. Chafing dishes were used previously. By about 1310 Chimneys had become general. In 1774 a new Building Act was passed-14 Geo. III. c. 78-which was not only designed to regulate the building of Chimneys, but went further. Sec. 78 recites :

And whereas many of the parishes within the limits of this Act have been frequently put to considerable expense, occasioned by the neglect of the inhabitants, as well lodgers and inmates as housekeepers, in not causing their chimneys to be duly swept, by means of which alarms of fire are frequently made, to the great terror and danger of His Majesty's subjects, which prob. would be prevented if such inhabitants were obliged to defray and bear the charges and expenses attending such their neglects, or some reasonable part thereof.

Any rewards paid by the churchwardens, or other expenses incurred, were to be paid by the person causing such fire.

This act was amended in 1834 by 4 & 5 Wm. IV. c. 35, which having expired, was

re-enacted in 1840 by 3 & 4 Vict. c. 85-An Act for the Regulation of Chimney Sweepers and Chimneys. This last-named Act contains the following provision:

VI. And whereas it is expedient for the better security from accidents by fire, the improved construction of chimneys and flues provided by the said Act be continued; be it enacted, that all withs and partitions between any chimney or flue, which at any time after the passing of this Act shall be built or rebuilt, shall be of brick or stone, and at least equal to half a brick in thickness; and every breast-back and with or partition of any chimney or flue to be built or rebuilt shall be built of sound materials, and the joints of the wood well filled with good mortar or cement, and rendered or stuccoed within; and also that every chimney or flue hereafter to be built or rebuilt in any wall, or of greater length than 4 feet out of the wall, not being a circular chimney or flue 12 inches in diameter, shall be in every section of the same not less than 14 inches by 9 inches; and no chimney flue shall be constructed with any angle therein which shall be less obtuse than an angle of 120 degrees, except as is hereinafter excepted; and every salient or projecting angle in any chimney or flue shall be rounded off 4 inches at least upon pain of forfeiture, by every master builder or other master workman who shall make or cause to be made such chimney or flue, of any sum not less than £10, nor exceeding £50; provided nevertheless that notwithstanding this Act chimneys or flues may be built at angles with each other of 90 degrees and more, such chimneys or flues having therein proper doors or openings not less than 6 inches square.

By the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act, 1865—28 & 29 Vict. c. 90—it is provided :

23. If the chimney of any house or other building within the metropolis is on fire, the occupier of such house or building shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding 20s.; but if such occupier proves that he has incurred such penalty by reason of the neglect or wilful default of any other person, he may recover summarily from such person the whole or any part of the penalty he may have incurred as occupier.

The penalties imposed by the 14 Geo. III. are repealed. [FIRE PREVENTION.]

Chimneys on fire constitute a considerable per-centage of the "calls" made to the Fire Brigade. [FIRE CALLS.]

CHINA.-China claims to be the oldest even of Asiatic nations; but of its early hist. we know very little. In 1710 its pop. was estimated at 27,241,129; in 1757 at 190,348,228. In 1812 an official census was taken by order of Kia King. The pop. was found to be 367,632,907, giving a density of 283 to the square mile. In 1860 the pop. was estimated at 414,607,000; in 1867 at 450,000,000. Various other enumerations are said to have taken place. Dr. Bowring considered (1855) that "our greater knowledge of the country increases the evidence in favour of the approximate correctness of the official document." The Laws of China make provisions for a general system of registration, and punishment is awarded to those who neglect to regis. `The machinery is confided to the Elders of the district, and a census should be taken annually.

The populous aspect of the country has been noticed by many writers. Among the first was Father Alvares Semedo, whose Hist. of China was pub. in Lond. in 1655, and who says:

This kingdom is so exceedingly populous, that having lived there two-and-twenty years, I was in no less amazement at my coming away than in the beginning at the multitude of the people. Certainly the truth exceedeth all hyperboles, not only in the cities, towns, and public places, but also in the highway there is as great a concourse as is usual in Europe on some great festival. And if we will refer ourselves to the General Register Book, wherein only the common men are enrolled, leaving out women, children, eunuchs, professors of letters and arms, there are reckoned of them to be 58 millions, 55 thousand, 1 hundred, and 4 score.

An earthquake throughout China occurred in 1662. It is stated to have buried 300,000 persons in Pekin alone. In 1731 another earthquake occurred which is said to have destroyed 100,000 in Pekin, and 80,000 in a suburb.

The enormous river pop. of China, who live only in boats-who are born and educated -who marry, rear their families, and die—who, in a word, begin and end their existence on the water, and never have or dream of any shelter other than its roof, and who seldom tread except on the deck or boards of their Sampans-show to what extent the land is crowded, and how inadequate it is to maintain the cumberers of the soil. In the city of Canton alone it is estimated that 300,000 dwell upon the surface of the river; the boats, sometimes 20 or 30 deep, cover some miles, and have their wants supplied by ambulatory salesmen, who wend their way through every accessible passage.-Bowring. The constant flow of emigration from China, contrasted with the complete absence of migration into China, has further been regarded as a striking evidence of the redundancy of pop. They crowd all the islands of the Indian Archipelago; they spread over the South Seas; they reach Australia, and penetrate to the West Indies. California has long formed a considerable outlet for them; they are rapidly spreading over the entire U.S. In 1822 nearly the entire city of Canton was burned. The lightness of the materials used in construction renders the towns peculiarly liable to destruction by fire.

In 1848 Hong-kong and neighbourhood was visited by a violent typhoon. Immense damage was done to the shipping; upwards of 1000 boat-dwellers on the Canton rivers were drowned.

In 1855 Dr. Bowring, then Brit. Plenipotentiary at Hongkong, communicated to our Reg.-Gen. a paper on the Pop. of China [printed in Statistical Journal, vol. xx. p. 41], from which some of the preceding facts are drawn. He says further:

While so many elements of vitality are in a state of activity for the reproduction and sustenance of the human race, there is prob. no part of the world in which the harvests of mort. are more sweeping and destructive than in China; producing voids which require no ordinary appliances to fill up. Multitudes perish absolutely from want of the means of existence-inundations destroy towns and

villages, and all their inhabitants; it would not be easy to calculate the loss of life by the typhoons or hurricanes which visit the coasts of China, in which boats and junks are sometimes sacrificed by hundreds and by thousands. The late civil wars in China must have led to the loss of millions of lives. The sacrifices of human beings by executions alone are frightful. At the moment at which I write it is believed that from 400 to 500 victims fall daily by the hands of the headsman in the province of Kwangtung alone. Reverence for life there is none, as life exists in superfluous abundance.

Infanticide, especially of female children, is one of the means employed towards lessening the redundancy of human life. The following is a somewhat remarkable decree of the Emperor Kanghi regarding this practice, which some writers have denied: Edict prohibiting the drowning of children.-When a mother mercilessly plunges beneath the water the tender offspring to which she has given birth, can it be said that it owes its life to her who thus takes away what it has just begun to enjoy? The poverty of the parents is the cause of this wrongdoing; they have difficulty in earning subsistence for themselves, still less can they pay nurses, and undertake all the necessary expenses for their children; thus driven to despair, and unwilling to cause the death of two persons to preserve the life of one, it comes to pass that a mother to save her husband's life consents to destroy her children. Their natural tenderness suffers; but they at length determine to take this part, thinking themselves at liberty to dispose of the life of their children, in order to prolong their own. If they exposed these children in some unfrequented spot, their cries would move the hearts of their parents: what then do they? They cast the unfortunate babe into the current of a river, that they may at once lose sight of it, and in an instant deprive it of life. You have given me the name of Father of the People; though I cannot feel for these infants the tenderness of the parents to whom they owe their being, I cannot refrain from declaring to you, with the most painful feelings, that I absolutely forbid such homicides. The tiger, says one of our books, though it be a tiger, does not rend its own young; towards them it has a feeling breast, and continually cares for them. Poor as you may be, is it possible that you should become the murderers of your own children? It is to show yourselves more unnatural than the very beasts of prey.-Lettres Edifiantes, vol. xix., p. 101-2.

Yet to be without children is almost regarded as a mark of reproach; or as Sir John Bowring puts it, "A childless person is deemed an unhappy, not to say a degraded, man. The marriage of children is one of the great concerns of families. Scarcely is a child born in the higher ranks of life, ere the question of its future espousal becomes a frequent topic of discussion. There is a large body of professional match-makers whose business it is to put all the preliminary arrangements in train. But severe laws prohibit marriage within certain degrees of affinity. So strong is the objection to the marriage of blood relations, that a man and woman of the same sing, or family, cannot lawfully wed.

Chinese fire engines are described as odd-looking machines. Each one is carried on a pole, by four men; the pole passing through the upper part. The engines consist of forcing pumps, worked by a double lever, the jet of water being projected through a brass nozzle about six feet long, working on a swivel from the upper portion of the pump. They have no hose, yet a very effective jet can be projected some distance. The great fault appears to be the rapidity with which the supply of water is exhausted. They have no suction hose, and have to be supplied with water from buckets, like the early fire engines used in Europe.-Young.

But if their engines are defective, their brigade arrangements in other respects seem very good. Dr. D. F. Rennie gives the following account of a fire he saw at Tientsin in 1862, and the means employed to extinguish it:

To-day we met a Chinaman with a sort of hand drum, beaten after the fashion of a child's toy. With this he was making a great noise, and while we were speculating what it meant some flames were seen on the opposite side of the canal near the French quarter, and a number of men coming down the opposite bank in line, with white flags and black letters on them. We concluded that they were connected with the police, and that the flags were to indicate the direction of the fire, which the beating of the drum was intended to announce to the neighbourhood. We accordingly followed, and soon reached the fire, which had settled on a cluster of houses up a narrow lane, in which fortunately close to the burning houses there was a vacant space. We had hardly got to it before a number of men bearing gaudy flags and standards arrived, followed in rapid succession by eight fire engines. . . . In a short time the inclosure was filled with flags of all colours and devices, tomtoms, gongs, etc.; the noise and general confusion which prevailed baffling description. Some sailors from a Russian gunboat, frozen in not far off, and a number of French soldiers, were actively employed on the roofs of the houses detaching the thatching and other combustible material. Fresh engines continued to arrive, and without heeding the direction, the moment they got into the open space they commenced discharging their contents towards the flames. One engine I saw playing right on the Russians and Frenchmen, with the thermometer 20 degrees below freezing. They seemed however not to mind it, but continued to work away with a right good will. As darkness began to creep on, the effect of the lines of flags and lanthorns was very picturesque. Taken altogether it was one of the gayest of sights I have seen in China, and not unlike a gigantic teetotal procession at home. The Tientsin fire brigade appears to consist of several sections, each of which has a distinctive uniform, and distinctive coloured flags. The engines were supplied with water from the Grand Canal, close to its junction with the Peiho, carried in buckets slung in the ordinary way from the end of a bamboo supported across the shoulder. In this way it was brought up from different parts of the canal, where the ice had to be broken for the purpose. The system of lighting by lanthorns was very perfect, and altogether the arrangements gave the idea of being wonderfully complete, more especially the wonderful rapidity with which the different sections of the fire brigade were on the ground with their engines.-British Arms in Northern China and Japan.

That ins. has long been carried on in China is well known-how long is the only mystery connected with it. Its application has been made to various useful purposes, as fire ins.; the ins. of life interests; of relief in time of sickness; ins. of growing crops; and ins. against lawsuits. It seems that the bus. is carried on upon the principle of mut. contribution, in a manner not dissimilar to that which prevailed amongst the old English gilds.

We have, in the writings of M. Skatchkoff (a Russian agriculturist, long resident in China), an account of the formation of asso. for the ins. of growing crops against fire, or destruction by civil commotion, or by cattle, which prevail generally in the rural districts. It is as follows. The landholders of each individual village, with the residents in its immediate neighbourhood, form a separate so., the affairs of which are conducted by the village Elders, without any interference on the part of the Gov. officials. A general meeting of the villagers, desiring that class of protection, is convened; but a day or two previous to the meeting, three or four Elders, or four or five of the most influential among the villagers, assemble in the josshouse, for the discussion of the necessary preliminaries: such as forming an approximate estimate of the extent of land under cultivation, and therefore of crops to be ins., and of the prob. rates of prem., causing proclamation to be made of their proceedings, and giving notice thereof to the police authorities. Affairs having been so far adjusted, on the day of meeting each landholder-leaseholders as well as freeholders being eligible-who desire to participate in the mut. ins. of the village crops, is expected to appear before the elders in the temple to affix his signature against his name in the list prepared as aforesaid. Those who do not appear are considered to be unwilling to share in the arrangement. The operations of the asso. when formed appear to be on the preventive principle, thus:

The number of watchmen to be hired is then determined in accordance with the extent of land [crops] ins. About Pekin two watchmen are allowed to every 300 English acres for the open country. In hilly districts, and where the view is much impeded by inclosures, the number is doubled. Each watchman receives about 12s. for the whole period of his service. The precise rates of prem. to be charged for each acre of land ins. are then fixed. This is in a great measure dependent upon the condition of the adjacent districts. When all is quiet, and no reason exists for anticipating any serious disorders, it is considered sufficient to have in hand, after the watchmen have been paid, a surplus equal to one-tenth of the sum collected in prems. On the other hand, when disturbances are rife, and the general aspect of affairs less assuring, the rates of prem. are raised, so as to leave in some cases, after paying the watchmen, a reserve equal to one-fifth of the total amount insured [? of prems.].

These arrangements are made for the duration of each crop separately-sometimes for still shorter periods. In many districts the winter crops are ins. from seed-time to harvest, which of course includes a provision against injury by cattle, and losses by robbery and fire. Around Pekin the ins. of winter crops is made from the middle of June, when the grain has attained its full growth, until harvest only. Spring crops are invariably ins. from the day of sowing to the day of harvest. The fields are watched day and night; for every thief taken in the act, and for every head of cattle caught trespassing, the watchmen receive a reward from the so. of 300 tsians, or about 8d. Each instance of neglect of duty is punished by a fine of double the amount. The punishment of the thief is severe; night thefts are punished less severely than those in broad daylight. Cattle found trespassing are impounded, to be redeemed by payment of a fine, varying with the description of cattle and other circumstances.

In the event of fire occurring in an ins. field, the Elders are bound to inquire into its causes. If it proves to have originated with the owner, he pays the so. a fine of Is. (500 tsians). If it were caused by another person, the delinquent pays a fine of ten times the value of the produce destroyed, the owner being indemnified by the so. For all losses the person ins. receives immediate payment of a sum equivalent to one and a half times his loss, estimated according to the prob. scale of prices during the ensuing winter. All money remaining over as a surplus out of the prems., fines, etc., is treated as a reserve fund, applicable to various public purposes, such as the repairs of the schools, temples, etc., and in providing gratuities for the police. The funds are invested by way of advance to village landowners, at the rate of 1 p.c. p. month. Any inadequacy in the funds is made up by an extra pro rata charge upon the acreage ins.

The practice of ins. against law proceedings is said to owe its origin to the well-known rapacity of Chinese officials, designated in the figurative language of the people, "The Tiger's Cruelty." Against these dangers nearly every village has its ins. asso. The following account of their formation and working is highly instructive:

When an asso. of this character is to be formed, the Elders prepare a list of the inhabitants, to which all who desire to join affix their signatures. Armed with this authority, the Elders then enter into secret negociations with the police inspector of the district as to the amount of composition to be paid to him for non-intervention in every case calling for the action of the police. Among these are cases of sudden death, suicides, compositions between debtors and creditors, family disputes, and the like. Availing themselves of their secret understanding with the authorities, the Elders take care to arrange all such matters privately, without affording any opportunity for police intervention. The rates of hush-money are generally small, varying from 10s. to 25s. of our currency.

These contracts are adhered to most scrupulously by both parties. All sums disbursed by the Elders in this way are repaid to them within a period of ten days by the other members, each contributing in proportion to the number of acres of land he holds. Membership is not compulsory; but the results are said sometimes to be unpleasant to those who decline to join, and these are generally in a small minority.—Ins. Reporter, Philadelphia.

We do not trace the practice of L. ins., in its simple aspect of making provision for families, amongst the Chinese. It may exist. The Brit. offices have not yet extended their operations beyond the range of the Brit. residents. The climate is somewhat excessive; that is, of greater range of temperature than is usual within the same parallels of latitude. Pekin, the capital, lies a degree south of Naples; and yet while the mean