The progress of the modern science of gunnery certainly tends to increase the distance at which armies will engage each other. With field artillery flinging shot to a distance of two or three miles, and riflemen able to make tolerably sure practice at a distance of three-quarters of a mile, we are not likely often to hear of hand-to-hand conflicts in future warfare. The use of breech-loaders will also tend to the same effect. Hitherto we have scarcely had experience of the results which these changes are to produce on modern warfare. At Sadowa breech-loaders did not encounter breech-loaders, and it was easy for the victors in that battle to come to close quarters with their enemies. But in a battle where both sides are armed with breech-loaders, we shall probably see another sort of affair altogether. The bayonet will be an almost useless addition to the soldier’s arms; a charge of cavalry upon well-armed infantry will be almost as hopeless as the famous Balaclava charge; and the artillery on either side will have to play a game at long bowls. I venture to anticipate that the first great European war will introduce a total change into the whole system of warlike manœuvres.[14] (From the _Daily News_, November 1868.) _INFLUENCE OF MARRIAGE ON THE DEATH-RATE._ The Royal Commission on the Law of Marriage has attracted attention to many singular and instructive results of modern statistical inquiry. Not the least important of these is the apparent influence of marriage on the death-rate. For several years it has been noticed by statisticians that the death-rate of unmarried men is considerably higher than the death-rate of married men and widowers. I believe that Dr. Stark, Registrar-General for Scotland, was one of the first to call attention to this peculiarity, as evidenced by the results of two years’ returns for Scotland. But the law has since been confirmed by a far wider range of statistical inquiry. The relative proportion between the death-rates of the married and of the unmarried is not absolutely uniform in different countries, but it is fairly enough represented by the following table, which exhibits the mortality per thousand of married and unmarried men in Scotland:— Ages. Husbands and Widowers. Unmarried. 20 to 25 6·26 12·31 25 to 80 8·23 14·94 30 to 35 8·65 15·94 35 to 40 11·67 16·02 40 to 45 14·07 18·35 45 to 50 17·04 21·18 50 to 55 19·54 26·34 55 to 60 26·14 28·54 60 to 65 35·63 44·54 65 to 70 52·93 60·21 70 to 75 81·56 102·71 75 to 80 117·85 143·94 80 to 85 173·88 195·40