The Express.
London, England, 1867-11-22 00:00:00

EAST LONDON CONVALESCENT HOME.

A very numerously attended public meeting was
held yesterday at the London Tavern, in aid of the pro-
posed enlargement of Mrs. Gladstone's Convalescent Horne
for the East of London. The Lord Mayor was advertised
sa the chairman, but an explanation was given by Mr.
K fireman HODGSON, who was voted to the chair in his
plane, that the right hon. gentleman could not attend in
consequence of having to preside ate Court of Common
Council. Amongst the gentlemen on the platform were
the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., the Right Hon.
J. Goechen, M.P., Lord Cranborne, Sir Thomas Watson,
Mr. Hepworth Dixon, Mr. Hankey, Mr. S. Morley, Mr.
H. Nieman, the Rev. Mr. Rowsell,
Mn. Gladstone and several other ladies occupied promi-
nent places in the body of the hall.
The object of the charity, and the circumstances under
which it originated, are described in the following state-
ment which wag circulated in the room :—" This Conva-
lescent Home arose out of the necessity of providing
country accommodation for patients recovering from
cholera during the epidemic of 1866. When that epidemic
ceased it was discovered that numerous persons who had
recently passed through other forms of acute disease,
relapeed into lingering and sometimes fatal illness from
want of that timely change of air, good food, and com-
fortable lodging which are essential to complete recovery.
It was to make provision for such cases otherwise unpro-
vided for, that Mrs. Gladstone, with the help of those
benevolent persons who might go to her aid, determined
to place upon a permanent foundation the Home thus
created to supply a temporary need and seeing that the
conditions of admission to kindred institutions debarred
numbers from their benefits, or indirectly withheld
them till too late to be of use, she further
determined, with the assent of her committee, to
dispense with payments and canvassing in every form, and
to admit patients solely in the order of the urgency of
their claims to relief. All this, within certain limits, has
been done ; and for many months the Home at Snaree-
lnook has been in active and successful operation. For
some time men alone were received ; but latterly demands
for the admission of women and children having become
numerous and pressing, Mrs. Gladstone has reserved for
their reception a part of her orphanage at Clanton. The
work has thus, by a process of natural development, out-
grown the means of carrying it cm ; and it is at this crisis
that the committee make an earnest appeal to the public
for prompt and liberal help to enable them to extend the
sphere of their orations."
Prayer having been offered up by the Rev. Mr. Rowsell,

The CHAIRM;N read • letter iron. the Bishop of London
expressing sympathy in the purpose of the meeting, end
regretting his inability to attend.

The Bishop of R001E8171; moved a resolution, declaring
that the principles on which the home was founded en-
titled it to public support ; end in doing so, paid • well-
merited acknowledgment to Mrs. Gladstone's large-
hearted charity in establishing an institution for the per-
manent relief of the sick poor of London, and urged its
claims to public support.

Mr. Glaosvotre seconded the motion. If ever there
was a strictly practical project which bad nothing of a specu-
lative character about it, it was this. (Hear.) With re-
gard to the principles referred to in the resolution, they
were simple, and were set out in the rules of the institu-
tion. Two only of those principles were considered by the
promoters to be fundamental. The first of these was that
the hospital should be free ; and the second, that it should
be conducted without the slightest regard to religious dis-
tinctions. (Cheers.) He met the objection that the
patients ought to contribute to their own support by
stating that the poor during illness were without income,
being unable to work, and usually when approaching con-
valescence, and long before they were enabled to work,
found all their means exhausted in the necessary expenses
of sickness. The free system in regard to admission would
prevent al! the inconveniences, expense, and uncertainty
of election, which was the only means of admission
to many of our charitable institutions ; and the
free system in reference to religion would exclude
no one on the ground of religious opinions, while it would
not prevent due regard being paid to the performance of
Divine service in accordance with the rites of what would
he the religion of the majority of the inmates. Referring
to the possible plea of bad times, he remarked that the
only difference between a bad year and a good year was
that in the one the accretion of capital was greater,
and in the other smaller ; the capital of the nation was
not diminished in the bad year, although the profit. were
leas . • and as a reason for the capitalist subscribing as
liberally now as in more prosperous times, he reminded
them that periods of commercial and financial difficulty
pressed far n.ore directly and severely upon the poor than
the rich.

--The resolution was carried unanimously.
Lord CRAMIORNE moved that the opinions expressed
by the members of the clerical and medical professions
as to the advantages of a convalescent home for the east
of London render it necewq to enlarge the limited
accommodation which Mrs. G tone's Home at present
possesses. Re added, as affording some notion of the
character of the effort required, that the cost of
enlarging the institution by 100 beds would be about
2,4001. per annum. He pointed out that the hospitals
were not in a position generally to provide an asylum for
their patients during convalescence ; and that, as the Poor-
law could not supply it, they must depend upon public
benevolence alone, which he felt satisfied would not be
appealed to in vain.
Sir Triosas WAVVON, M.D., from a long hospital expe-
tience, testified to the necessity of the proposed institu-
tion, where pure air, proper food, and medical attention
should be provided for convalescent patients. That neces-
sity Mrs. Gladstone bad learned in the course of her own
labours among the sick and dying during the last visita-
tion of the cholera. (Hear, bear.)
The Bishop of CHVITIER, in the absence of Lord Lyttel-
ton, who was detained on the Public Schools Commission,
proposed the third resolution, recommending the forma-
tion of committees of all classes in the various parishes
and districts of the east of London, for the purpose of
collecting subscriptions and otherwise forwarding the ob-
ject in view.
This was seconded by Mr. Bemoan-Ft DIXON, and
carried.

Another resolution. pledging the meeting to do all in its
power to give effect to the previous resolutions. moved
by Mr. 8. Monti, and seconded by Mr. G misior, was like-
wise passed, and
The usual compliment to the chairman concluded the
proceedings.

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