have been furnished with the particulars of a negotiation which has taken place between a committee of the Corporation of London and the proprietors of those works, which not having met with a successful termination, and not being within the reference made to your Committee, it is unnecessary to detail. Your Committee, however, think it proper to remark, that in the event either of altering or rebuilding the bridge, the obstruction caused by the water-works, which are evidently a public nuisance, must be removed.

"If the supply of Thames water be necessary to the public, your Committee conceive that other means, of a more certain, and, in all probability, of a less expensive nature than those now adopted, may be resorted to, for affording such supply.

"Your Committee have made inquiry into the state of the finances applicable to the support of the bridge, the particulars of which will be found in the evidence annexed to this report.

"After attentively considering all the evidence, your Committee are decidedly of opinion, that the present construction of Londonbridge, causes great impediment to the navigation of the river Thames, and is very injurious to the interests of the owners of the vessels which navigate the river, by occasioning frequent damage to the craft, and the loss of many lives.

"That it appears to your Committee, that the only effectual remedy which can be applied to remove all the inconveniences and obstructions now existing, is by the entire removal of the present bridge with the starlings

and water-works, and the erecting a new bridge with not more than five arches.

"That it appears to your Committee, that considering the local interests connected with the approaches to the present bridge, a new bridge should be erected on the present site, or as near as possible to the same.

"That it appears to your Committee, that the city of London hold in trust certain large estates, which were left to, and have otherwise become vested in them, for the purpose of sustaining London-bridge; that the yearly rental of such estates, subject to certain charges made thereon by acts of parliament and otherwise, and to expenses of management, the particulars of which will appear in the evidence of Mr. Robert Finch Newman, the Bridge-house comptroller, now amount to upwards of 25,800, and which, upon falling in of leases, will be gradually increased; that the trustees also possess stock and cash, of the present value of 112,000l. and which sum is ap. plicable to the same purpose.

"Your Committee further state, that in the event of the funds applicable to the proposed works proving insufficient, which they have no reason to believe will be the case, they are of opinion, that adequate means of raising the money may be found without imposing a toll on passengers passing over the bridge.

"That your Committee recommend that a bill be brought into parliament early in the next session for carrying into effect their report; and they also further recommend, that the notices required by the standing orders of the house, preparatory to the

execution of such a plan as may finally be approved of, ought to be given by the city Remembrancer, previous to the next sessions of parliament, in order

that the work, if sanctioned by parliament, may proceed without delay.

"25th May, 1821."

To the Right Hon. Lord Viscount Sidmouth, Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, &c. &c.

National Vaccine Establishment, Percy-street, April 12, 1821. MY LORD; It is with great regret we announce to your lordship that the small-pox has occasioned the loss of many lives in various parts of the United King. dom since our last report; and that not less than 792 persons have died of that distemper, with in the bills of mortality, in the course of the last year. This is about one third of the average number of those who perished annually in the metropolis before the introduction of vaccinnation; but so many deaths afford a strong presumptive proof that great prejudices still prevail against vaccination, and that the benevolent designs of the government are still far from being accomplished. This board has laboured incessantly to set forth the comparative ease and safety of the indisposition of vaccination, and the difficulty and danger of the smallpox, whether occurring naturally or occasioned by inoculation; and it has been assisted most importantly, and in the true spirit of disinterested benevolence, by the master, governors, and members of the court of assistants of

the Royal College of Surgeons

who have bound themselves indi

vidually to each other, by a solemn engagement, not to yield to any solicitations to inoculate for the small-pox. This good example has been followed by most of the respectable practitioners in the country; though some of them, we are sorry to say,bave lent themselves improvidently to this injurious practice. And we find that the multitude in many places have been so infatuated as to accept the proffered services even of itinerant inoculators, in spite of their gross ignorance of all disease, and of the rudeness and inaptitude of the instruments which they employ to insert the poison. Hence a perpetual source of contagion is supplied and kept up, to the constant danger of all such as have not yet been vaccinated, or who may have undergone an imperfect process, or whose peculiarity of constitution makes them still susceptible of the variolous disease-a peculiarity similar to that which renders some persons capable of taking the small-pox twice; of which, within the period of three years only, we have received evidence of not less than 52 instances.

It is true, indeed, my lord, that we have received accounts from different parts of the coun

try, of numerous cases of smallpox having occurred after vaccination: and we cannot doubt that the prejudices of the people against this preventive expedient are assignable (and not altogether unreasonably perhaps) to this

cause.

These cases the board has been industriously employed in investigating; and though it appears that many of them rest only on hearsay evidence, and that others seem to have undergone the vaccine process imperfectly, some years since, when it was less well understood, and practised less skilfully than it ought to be; yet, after every reasonable deduction, we are compelled to allow that too many still remain on undeniable proof, to leave any doubt that the pretensions of vaccination, to the merit of a perfect and exclusive security in all cases against small-pox, were admitted at first rather too unreservedly. Yet the value of this important resource is not disparaged in our judgment; for, after all, these cases bear a very small proportion to the number of those who are effectually protected by it. The reports of the vaccinators at the several stations in the metropolis give only 8 cases of small-pox out of nearly 67,000 vaccinated by them, since the first establishment of this board; and as the small-pox has prevailed extensively in London, these persons so vaccinated must have been frequently exposed to contagion, and consequently the protecting effect of vaccination must have been submitted to as severe à test as can well be imagined. Moreover, we have the most undoubted proofs, from experience, that where vaccination has been per

formed perfectly, small pox occurring after it is almost universally a safe disease; and though ushered in by severe symptoms, has hardly ever failed to be cut short before it had reached that period at which it becomes dangerous to life.

This controlling power of vaccination must be admitted as next in importance to its preventive influence, and surely justifies our high estimation of the value of this great discovery.

The board has taken care to promulgate to all its correspondents, by repeated admonitions, those modes of conducting the process of vaccination, which ample experience within its own immediate sphere of observation has ascertained to be the most successful.

It cannot be denied, my lord, that the continuance of the practice of inoculation for the smallpox is the main source of whatever disappointment we have met with; for, in those countries where the legislature has interfered to prohibit it, and to enforce vaccination, the small-pox has become almost unknown, and the full benefit of this valuable discovery is enjoyed: but similar results, we know, cannot be looked for in the United Kingdom, until the whole community shall concur voluntarily in this salutary practice.

We have only to add, that 6,933 persons were vaccinated last year at the several stations in London; that 48,105 charges have been given to the public; and that 77,467 have been vaccinated in Great Britain and Ireland by our immediate correspondents only; making a total of 84,400 vaccinated last year-a

number superior to any former

year.

HENRY HALFORD, President.
RICHARD POWELL, M. D.
JOHN COOKE, M. D.
WM. MACMICHAEL, M. D.

P. MERE LATHAM, M. D. (Censors of the Royal College of Physicians.)

T. FORSTER, Master of the Royal College of Surgeons. EVERARD HOME,

WILLIAM BLIZARD, (Governors of the Royal College of Surgeons.)

By order of the Board.
JAMES HERVEY, M. D.
Registrar.

MY LORDS; In calling upon the heads of the other departments of his majesty's civil government to enter upon a revision of their respective establishments, with a view to such economical reductions as may fulfil the intentions of his majesty, expressed in his answers to the addresses of both houses of parliament, think it right to state the principles upon which they have proceeded, and the course they have followed in the revision of the establishment of the Treasury under their immediate direction.

They have thought that they should best carry into execution the intentions expressed in the addresses of parliament, by keeping in view the following general rules:

1st. That every office was to be restored to the situation in respect to the number of persons employed, and of their respective emoluments, in which it stood in 1797, unless some adequate cause continued to exist which rendered some alteration necessary in future; and that the mode of regulation which seems in all respects most eligible, is to require, that the individuals themselves who may hereafter enjoy the benefit of superannuation allow

ances, should be called upon to contribute to a superannuation fund, to be administered under the direction of their lordships, and according to the following regulations, viz. :—

All persons holding offices, the salaries or pecuniary emoluments of which, after revision, amount together to 100l. a-year, or upwards, and who are entitled to superannuation under the act 50 Geo. 3rd, c. 117, to contribute 5 per cent of such salaries or emoluments to a fund to be called "The General Superannuation Fund." (My lords will have under further consideration what directions shall be given with respect to offices not amounting to 100l. a year.)

My lords are of opinion, that in addition to the above rate, which may be considered as a fair contribution to be required from the individuals who may be entitled to superannuation under the act of the 50th Geo. 3rd, c. 117, in aid of the charge incurred by the public in respect thereof, a further contribution may justly be required from those who are in possession of emoluments which have been increased since 1797, and which are greater than it is intended hereafter perma

nently to attach to their respective situations. They therefore think that persons holding offices, the salaries of which are hereafter to be reduced, should be called upon to pay an additional contribution of two and a half per cent upon all offices exceed ing 100l. a year, and not exceeding 500l. Five per cent from 500l., and not exceeding 1,000l. And ten per cent exceeding 1,000l. Provided that the increase of such respective salaries since 1797 shall have been not less than double the amount of the additional contribution hereby required. Such additional contributions respectively to cease whenever the parties paying the same shall be promoted to a situation entitled, under the new regulations, to a salary equal to that which they now possess.

No superannuation to be granted to any such contributor, except by the Treasury, and by that board only, at four periods to be fixed in each year (except in cases of immediate urgency), when a special board or boards shall be held for the purpose of considering all applications received in the preceding quarter; notice of which board shall be given to the heads of the departments recommending such applications, from each of which some proper officer shall, if required, attend to answer all such questions as the board of Treasury may put, in order to enable them to decide upon the fitness or relative urgency of each application; and to distribute the disposable amount of the fund, or so much of it as may be requisite, in such manner as, upon an examination of all the cases before them, may appear most con

ducive to justice and the public interest.

The interest accruing upon the contributions to be applied in the first instance to the expense of management of the fund, and the remainder to accumulate for the benefit of it.

If the aggregate sum now paid in superannuation allowances to public servants who hold offices coming within the description of the first article, shall be found to exceed one-tenth of the aggregate amount of the salaries and pecuniary emoluments of all the said offices, the new superannuations to be granted in any one year shall not exceed one-half of the saving arising from such of those allowances as may. have lapsed in the preceding year, until the whole sum so granted shall be reduced to ten per cent, or under that amount, in conformity to the fourth article.

My lords are further of opinion, that it will be proper to propose to parliament to repeal the several rates of allowance enacted by the 5th Geo. 3rd, cap. 117, and to substitute the following in lieu thereof, viz :

Above ten years' service, and not exceeding 15, 4-12ths of the salary; above 15, and not exceeding 20, 5-12ths; above 20, and not exceeding 25, 6-12ths; above 25, and not exceeding 30, 7-12ths; above 30, and not exceeding 35, 8-12ths; above 35, and not exceeding 40, 9-12ths; above 40, and not exceeding 45, 10-12ths; above 45, and not exceeding 50, 11-12ths; and exceeding 50, the whole. Such respective allowances to be calculated upon the salary and pecuniary emoluments of the office,