The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-06-15 00:00:00

LORD DERBY ON HOSPITALS.

The Earl and Countess of Derby were present on Monday
at the opening of a Grand Bazaar and Fancy Fair in Stanley.
park, Liverpool, in aid of the Stanley Hospital, situated in a
crowded part of the town, the foundation stone of which
was laid by his lordship eight years ago.—Lord Derby, in
declaring the bazaar open, having alluded to the object the
committee had in view, said :

The hospital is established in a neighbourhood which
is poor, which is, on the whole, densely populated, and
although we hope that in progress of time the neighbour-
hood may be less poor, we cannot expect, and we cannot
esire, that it should be less populous; and, indeed, lam
;happy to say that, contrary to the almost universal ex-
perience of other places in the North of England, I ob-
serve that, even in this time of general industrial de-
pression, the growth of Liverpool, especially towards
the north end, but, I believe, on all sides alike, has
steadily continued. Now, I need not remind you that
of all forms of relief which can be given to distress
that of hospital assistance is least liable to abuse.
( Hear, hear.) A working man with a family may have
something put by for a rainy day, but it is hardly pos-
sible, as things are, that he should, especially in his
younger years, have enough laid by to meet the, for
him, enormous expense caused by serious illness
in his family. More especially is that the case
when he himself is the subject of the illness, and
therefore when his power of earning money is taken
away just at the moment when his expenses are in-
creasing. (Hear, hear.) I need not remind you, further,
that accidents are very frequent in these busy northern
towns of ours, and that at this Stanley Hospital alone,
in the course of last year, 806 cases of accident were
treated. It is common enough, as you know, for
people to lump together different classes, and to talk
of the high wages which are earned by working men in
these cities ; but we who live in them, or near them,
know well that in Liverpool, at least, and I believe
in other towns also, there is, side by side with the
well-paid artisan, a very large class of unskilled
labourers, whose pay brings them in a mere bare
subsistence, and to whom as matters actually stand,
it is a mere mockery to talk of making any
considerable provision for the future (hear, hear).
If it were worth while to argue the point, I might tell
you further that every hospital is not merely an
institution for the relief of disease, but that it is also
a school of medical and surgical training, and, there-
fore, that we, the richer classes, who can afford to pay
our doctor's bills when we are laid up in our houses
when we get ill, also gain by the experience which the
medical profession acquires in these hospitals in an
indirect, but nevertheless, in a very real manner
(hear, hear). A great deal has been said, and there is
a great deal to be said, in favour of hospitals which
should not be only gratuitous, but which shall be
maintained in part by those who use them, on the
principle of an insurance against illness. That is a
question which is receiving in London a good deal of at-
tention, and which I think deserves more attention than
it has yet received; but until institutions framed upon
the system exist, we must do the best we can with those
which we find, and even if institutions upon that prin-
ciple were largely established, there would still re-
main, as I have said before, a very considerable class
who would not be in a position to benefit by them, and
for whom, therefore, we must continue to make the
same provisions we make now. (Hear, hear.) Now,
ladies and gentlemen, I will not trouble you with any
further remarks, but only say it is a very great
pleasure to Lady Derby and myself, after years of in-
voluntary absence on our part— absence caused by
public duties—to find ourselves again in Lancashire,
and again in the presence of those with whom we are
connected by so many and such intimate ties. (Loud
applause.)