AN ESSA Y ON LONGEVITY. 



though intemperateness is not a vera causa in, the 

 case of all peers, yet such men do not lead the quiet 

 and refined lives which characterize those of the other- 

 sex in the same class, but are given to exertion of a 

 violent and irregular character, possibly quite harm- 

 less morally, yet involving great expenditure from its 

 irregularity. 



The long life of the agricultural labourer belonging 

 to a friendly society, exceeding what is termed the 

 'healthy English life,' is explained by the man's small, 

 personal expenditure, the absence of tax implied in 

 the regularity of his daily labour, and the sobriety 

 implied in his membership of such a society. Mr. 

 Nelson remarks ('Vital Statistics,' p. 45), 'A member 

 of a friendly society may be regarded as a type of 

 industry, frugality, regularity of habits, and simplicity 

 of life.' Males of the English peerage have a higher 

 longevity than the males of All England, but not so 

 high as the healthy life of the insuring classes. Af- 

 fluence involving less personal expenditure increases 

 the longevity of those who enjoy it as compared to the 

 average due to disease and intemperateness which 

 embraces towns with all their misery and wretched- 

 ness ; but it does not insure the absence of excessive 

 and abnormal expenditure, to which indeed it directly 

 leads, 'luxury being the parent of diseases.' It is 

 evident from the facts given, that it is an error 

 to quote our English peerage as the longest-lived 

 class in Christendom, though it does not appear to 



