§ 75. It is a prevalent popular error, not unsanctioned by doctrines held by several eminent public writers, that “as one disease disappears so another springs up,” that the positive “amount of mortality, the common lot,” is the same to all classes. But death, besides differing in the period to different individuals, differs widely in the numbers of burials, and in the consequent expenses to different families, classes, and districts. It is the _number_ as well as the separate expense of each of the funerals which occur during the year to each _class_ of persons, or to different districts, which determines the total expense of burial to the class or district. Thus, to the poorer classes, living in wretched habitations, as those comprised in Bethnal Green and Whitechapel, there is one burial to every 31 of the inhabitants, whilst in the contiguous district of Hackney there is only one burial to every 56 of the inhabitants yearly. In Liverpool there is one burial per annum to every 30 of the inhabitants, whilst in the county of Hereford there is one burial only to every 55 of the inhabitants. If the existing charge of burial, at the above rates of expense to each class of individuals, were commuted for an annual payment, commencing at birth, as a premium for the payment of 100_l._, 50_l._, and 5_l._, payable at the undermentioned periods respectively, it would in the metropolis and the county of Hereford be nearly as follows:— ───────────────────────┬───────────────────────┬─────────────────────── CLASS. │ METROPOLIS. │ HEREFORDSHIRE. ───────────────────────┼──────────┬────────────┼──────────┬──────────── │ │ Annual │ │ Annual │ Average │Payment for │ Average │Payment for │ Age at │ Burial to │ Age at │ Burial to │ Death. │ every │ Death. │ every │ │Individual. │ │Individual. ───────────────────────┼──────────┼────────────┼──────────┼──────────── │ Years. │£. _s._ _d._│ Years. │£. _s._ _d._ Gentry │ 44 │1 1 10 │ 45 │1 1 0 Tradesmen or Farmers │ 25 │1 6 8 │ 47 │0 9 9 Labourers │ 22 │0 3 2 │ 39 │0 2 9 │ —— │ │ —— │ Average of all Classes │ 27 │ │ 39 │ ───────────────────────┴──────────┴────────────┴──────────┴────────────