The Express.
London, England, 1855-02-26 00:00:00

SCUTARI HOSPITAL,

(PLOY ♦ SPYCI•L CORRESPONDENT OP in DAILY
NEM.)

cONSTANTINOPLE, Pan. 12.
fmui
gScutaritrto m
bewhat
remedied oe
thep ita
English
erealthougheowuoidul
wish
ha.
state to what it was in, three months ago, is still very
rid of. There is no want of any articles,taitPe very
tro Y
.bi b ;let: eugthaeit
complaint is the great difficulty of getting them out
of store. Even for a single candle a regular indent
is required. From what I have been able to learn
the purveyor was at first so bound by instructions u
to be unable to step beyond the regular routine to
supply the smallest of necessary luxuries required by
the sick and wounded ; and had it not been for the
fund placed at Miss Nightingale's disposal the suffer-
ings of the inmates would, indeed, have continued as
terrible as they at first were. Great relaxation in
the stringency of the rules has been sanctioned from
home, and most things are now provided by govern.
ment. More room is the want, and sheds are now
erecting and nearly ready, of which the first
stone was not laid till the middle of January. They
will accommodate one thousand patients. Whose
fault it is I cannot take upon myself to say; but ca
the handing over of all buildings fur hospital purposes
no necessary utensils have ever been ready to meet
the wants of those whose ill fortune it has been to be
'the first occupants, and for this purpose Miss
Nightingale's fund has also been put in requisition.
Even now it is confidently asserted by those in a
position likely to form a right judgment, that on the
completion of these new buildings the purveyors'
department will again be found wanting.
Those of the men now in the wards to whom I
have spoken seem as cheerful as men in their position
usually are. They suffer many inconveniences which
might easily and consequently ought at once to be
remedied. 'f he hospital orderlies are made up of con.
valeseents ; and as they get better, they are drafted
oft to their regiments, and fresh convalescents put is
their fplaces, who, however willing, cannot be other-
wise than inexperienced. As trifles make a sick man
either comfortable or wretched, the constant substim.
tion of new nurses (and such orderlies are, and gene.
rally very kiitd ones) for those accustomed to the
wants or ways of the sick appears cruel. How often
to us all, at some time or other, has the way of even
smoothing a pillow appeared a matter of the utmost
importance.
For the last few days a new sort of low fever his
been on the increase, and, from all accounts, it seems
much to resemble the yellow fever of the West Indies.
It not only attacks the men is hospital, but the staff
officers living at Scutari. The chaplains and medical
men have all been sufferers. Several of the latter
have been carried off by it; and it is said that not
one half of those attacked will for a long time, if
ever, be again thoroughly fit for duty.
Colonel Powel has been sent to Smyrna, to get
hospital accommodation for 1,500 men. The Porte
has ordered that all houses required for that purpose
by us are to be handed over at once; and our government
have spared no expense. The ship Bombay is
kept as a floating hospital, at a charge of 1,7001.
per month, and has been so employed for ten
months. She accommodates about 350. The harbour
is crowded with vessels of all nations, and English
goods are selling at a price which cannot pay ship-
pers. Everything seems at sixes and sevens. Goods
known to be in the Custom-house cannot be found.
One or two merchants have got a list of some pack-
ages which they have seen in the Custom-house
unowned, and which list they have hung up in their
counting-houses. Great complaints are received
from those serving in the Crimea of parcels shipped
in England and never received. The shippers hays
evidently fancied Turkey to be a country like Eng-
land, and government, as carriers, as much to be
depended on as Chaplin and Heine. By ea-
dertaking the carrying of parcels at a no•
minal rate the Government have entailed on
themselves a trouble for which they were totally
unprepared, and assumed an office for which they
are totally unfitted. The officials at present have
quite enough to do without looking after every little
parcel sent from England, and enough writing to get
through without replying to one-tenth of the letters
addressed to them on the subject. Your readers will
very likely ask, What is to be done? Let those who
wish to send things give.them into the charge of some
respectable merchant in London, to be forwarded to
this place, and here to wait for the directions of the
Men& in the Crimea. The merchant's correspondent,
being on the spot, will be the best judge of what is
the best way of forwarding. This will no doubt be
more expensive, bat there will be some one responsi-
ble for its safe delivery, and in such a cue it is better
to pay five and twenty or thirty shillings as agency
charges on a parcel worth sixty, eighty, or a hundred
pounds, than five shillings to government, none of
whose officials think it necessary to look after what
they consider entirely out of their line of duty.
The English mail, via Marseilles, arrived on Sa-
turday morning with a Queen's messenger, and dos-
patches. The French papers tell us of the majority
against ministers; and at the embassy was a report
that Lord Derby had been sent for to form a new ad-
ministration. Rumours are rife as to Lord Raglan's
recal, but upon what foundation they rest Ido not
know. Telegraphic messages are constantly said to
be received but they are even less relied on hero
than in Es land.
Mies Nightingale has been attacked by fever, but
was yesterday almost herself again.

WHAT THE AMERICANS SAY OF OUR
COMMISSARIAT.
The following is extracted from a letter received
by the last mail from New York :

By the way, in my gossiping my paper full, I should hare
liked to have made a remark on one thing, that is, the com-
plaints made in English papers respecting Americans treat-
ing the really all-engrossing war with se much coolness.
The reason is this:—When the Mezican war took place.
which was decidedly a great accomplishment, considering
the immense distance to be travelled, the forte employed;
and the trouble of getting the cosaniimariat across league
and leagues of desert, the British papers excelled them-
selves In easels and remarks about the strong and the weak;
taunting the United States " that she had selected an
enemy to fight with, because she knew she could crush her."
Now, it is in the nature of mankind, and, I am afraid, of
the Anglo-Sums race in particular, to recollect such things;
hence the cool manner with which the affair is treated, and
the sneers thrown out by American papers with respect to
the !war in the East, which, I think, are richly deserved
with respect to the oommisariat department; for while the
Americans, with hundreds of miles of desert to lump alwa”
bad plenty to eat, and good gurgled attendance, the Eng'
lisp, with as open sea, a magnifiont fleet, and some of the
best doctors in the world, are fairly starved to death, and,
whoa wounded, left to rot. Alas! my uthmtunite couslrt
1111414 ii if