The Express.
London, England, 1855-05-01 00:00:00

CHRIST'S HOSPITAL.

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THE votes given to-day by the Governors of
Christ's Hospital may go far to decide whether the
character of that time-honoured Institution shall in
future be worthy of the City of which it has long
been one of the proudest boasts. The question sub
witted for their decision is, whether the education
afforded by the Blue Coat School is such as thu wants
of the age, or the resources of the Charity, entitle the
public to expect. The section of the Governors who
advocate the adoption of the Report of the Select
Committee, maintain that it is not. Without enter-
ing into details which only those who have maturely
studied the finances and management of t►e Hospital
are competent to pronounce upon, one or two unde-
niable facts may be mentioned which show the neces-
sity of very decided innovations.

One of the improvements most urgently called tor
is a change in the locality of the hospital. In any
circumstances there would be grave objections to •
school for upwards of 800 children being situated is
the centre of a large and crowded metropolis. Bar,
in addition to this, it would be difficult to point out •
site for each a school in London more open to
objections than that of Christ's Hospital. It
is in the immediate vicinity of Smithfield,
St. Bartholomew', Hospital, the Old Bailey,
and an immense number of taverns and
pot-houses which Smithfield Market has at-
tracted to the neighbourhood. It may be
urged that the market is about to be removed, and
that the beer-shops will follow : but St. Bartholo-
mew's and the Old Bailey will remain. The effiee
which the former is likely to have on the health of
the children is obvious from a statement made by
Mr. RENDELL : "My attention was called to thin
evil since my appointment as a member of the Seicst
Committee, by the senior surgeon of another large.
hospital, who, having occasion to visit our infirmary,
pointed out to me that it was placed so as to receive
the fetid odoura of human corruption emanating
from the chimney and the skylights of the dts-
secting-room of Bt. Bartholomew's at the level
of our first-floor windows." The locality sf
the hospital, moreover, renders it impossible
that the boys during their monthly whole holidays
should find their way to healthy places of recreation.
The fact is, that the boys on such day. are to be found
in considerable numbers in the adjoining taverns, and
in the gently of the Old Bailey—resorts eminently
calculated to sully the purity of the youthful mind.
And yet to deprive the boys of these holidays, by
confining them always to the narrow limits of their
play-ground, would transform them into feeble and
moping recluses. The physical and moral health of
the boys calls imperatively far a change of site. Bat
this has been pertinaciously resisted on tke part
of the governing body on the score of expense.
Why, the sale of the six acres on whick
the present buildings stand would realise,
at the prior. usually paid for ground in the heart et
London, enough to meet the outlay. Daring the last
thirty-five year. about 120,0001. has been expended
on the re-building of the London premises ; bow
much better would it have been to appropriate this
large sum to the erection of a proper building ta
some healthy country locality

In close oonnezion with this ooesideration is the
inadequacy of the accommodation in the present
buildings, notwithstanding the enormous outlay on
their construction and repair. There are no day-
rooms for the boys. When out of school and kept
within doors by the weather, they have only their
wards—that is, their bedrooms—to repair to. This
occupation of the same room, day and night, by •
great number of boys renders cleanliness and venti-
lation unattainable. True, when the present wards
and dormitories were built, four spacious day rooms
were provided for the boys, and to each separate dor-
mitory a lavatory was attached. Two of the day
rooms were fitted up for the beadle, and two were
appropriated as school rooms for two additional
classical masters, appointed in 1842 and 1848. The
building of the day rooms for the boys was a con-
fusion on the part of the governing body that they
were necessary; their subsequent misappropriation
shows how little the health sad comfort of the boy,
have been oared for. Bo too with the lavatories;
nine only of the wards have these accommodations;
the inmates of the rest are obliged to make shift with
one lavatory in common.

Enough hu been said to show that the moral and
physical eduestiot of the boys in Christ's Hospital is
very inadequately cared for. How is it with their
mental training P In aonatry-like ours the careers
open to mat of them are in the mercantile, ea
gingering, and other cognate profession. For all
ot these, la the existing condition and relations et