WILLIAMS' CASE.—3 BLAND. 247

on a gently rising ground in the midst of extensive and fertile
meadows, terminated by distant mountains, and watered by the
Eden, the Caldew, and the Peterill. The two former of these
rivers flow on different sides of the city; and their banks, and con-
tiguous meadows, afford a number of pleasant walks to the inhabi-
tants. Carlisle contains, at present, about ten thousand inhabi-
tants. The degree of salubrity of these two places, Northampton
and Carlisle, and the diseases arising from the climate, with which
they are visited, may be considered as sufficiently indicated by
these concise descriptions of their situations. But it is not stated
whether the population was stationary or not at those places when
those tables were formed; and yet it is evident, that the migra-
tions or shaftings of the population must necessarily affect all
observations of the duration of life made from accounts of births
and deaths alone. Rees' Cylo. r. Mortality. The Carlisle tables
were formed from the results of observations made during the
years 1779 to 1780, upon a population of eight thousand persons
in that place. But it does not appear whether the parish of All
Saints in Northampton was inhabited exclusively or dispropor-
tionably by rich, or by poor; nor is it said of what class the eight
thousand persons of Carlisle were composed. Both of the last
mentioned tables are however, evidently formed upon *too
narrow a basis to be applied to all England; and are the re- 234
suit of observations confined to too short a period of time, and are
made without any discrimination whatever as to class, occupation,
or sex. It must also be recollected, that the improved condition
of the people, since those tables were formed, has added much to
the average duration of human life. The Northampton tables are
those however, which have been adopted by most of the insurance
offices in England, as those upon which they still depend in cases
of insurance for lives.

The Equitable Insurance Company of London is said to be the
most wealthy and extensive institution of the kind in Europe.
This company, from their own observations and experience, have
formed tables, such as they have deemed safe to follow, with a
view to profit. These tables, called the Equitable Tables, have
been often resorted to as guides, and have been from time to time
revised by the actuaries of the institution. 9 Weatm. Rev. 393.
The next set of tables are those of Sweden, which appear to have
been constructed in a very satisfactory manner, upon returns care-
fully collected in the years 1755 to 1776, and corrected from other
returns from the years 1775 to 1796, and from 1801 to 1805. from
the population of the whole of Sweden and Finland. These tables
may be trusted as accurately exhibiting the chances of mortality
amongst the whole population of those two countries; but not the
relative chances amongst the different classes of that population.
But the climate of those countries, the severe and fatal changes of