Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-01-21 00:00:00

amiss,

As the Saturday Review, in an article on the
subject, well remarks,—" It remains with the
Government to give effect to these recommenda-
tions, and to render the Medical Department of
the army competent to ward off all preventible
mischief from the soldier while yet in health,
instead of waiting to treat him when the time for
prevention has passed. The re-organisation of the
military hospital system is a necessity which the
experience of the earlier period of the, Crimean
campaign has made painfully obvious. It was not
so much the rust of a long peace as divided
responsibility that made the hospitals of the army
little better than charnel houses ; and when a
remedy was at length applied, it was only by
superseding in practice, by every kind of extra-
neous aid, the faulty machinery which in theory

still remained, and indeed remains to this day,
unaltered. The cardinal rules which Miss
NIGHTINGALE suggested must be the basis of any
scheme. The organisation must be simple, and
the responsibility concentrated ; the medical
authorities must be supreme in all professional
matters, instead of being subject to the capricious
parsimony of purveyors or commissaries ; and,
lastly, the time of scientific surgeons should not
be wasted upon petty details of management,
which would be regulated quite as well by any
business-like man without a particle of pro-
fessional training. The existing hospital system
could not be more accurately described in
general terms than by saying that it exactly
reverses these maxims. The horrors of Scutari
were truly said to be the consequences of the
system ; but that system still exists, and the War
Office seems to be by no means impatient to super-
sede it by the regulations which have been framed
upon the bafitg gf the Commissioners' Report, But

Parliament will soon be sitting, and we are
sanguine enough to believe that the thorough
reform of the whole sanitary condition of the army
will be secured, in spite of any amount of slug-
gishness at head quarters."

WHERE IS THERE A POLICEMAN ?-It has frequently
been said, and with some degree of truth, that whenever
a policeman is wanted, he is never to be found. This
was amply verified by what took place last evening,
shortly after six o'clock, near the Terminus of the London
and North Western Railway Station, in Lime-street.
It is well known to all persons who are in the habit of
passing throngh that portion of the street, that there
are a number of girls daily located there for the pur-
pose of making a few pence, by the sale of oranges,
frequently an accommodation to travellers, and there are
also a number of idle and dissolate fellows always loiter-
ing about the same locality, with no other apparent object
in view than that of annoying the respectable portion of
the community, by their disgraceful, disgusting, and
obscene language. The former, when a policeman is
seen in the locality, are driven away, while the latter are
permitted to remain undisturbed. Last evening, about
the hour named, one of these poor girls was standing
against the entrance to the station, quietly endeavouring
to sell her oranges, when several overgrown scoundrels
passed her, and one of them deliberately took from
her basket two oranges. The others made their
escape up Lord Nelson-street, but the girl .caught
hold of the thief, and asked. him to give her back the
oranges. This he refused to do ; but finding he could
not get away, he struck her several most terrific blows in
the face, which compelled her to relinquish her hold, and
the ruffian followed his companions, as fast as he could,
the poor girl imploring him to return her the oranges.
This disgraceful scene was witnessed by a number of
persons, some of whom called out " Police !
policeman was too be found, and the general exclamation
was, "Where is the policeman ?" many expressing
themselves ready to give the scoundrel in charge. But
the poor girl was left without any redress. While re-
ferring to this case, we would call the• attention of the
authorities to the disgraceful state of this locality from
the close of day until a late hour at night. It is the re-
sort of a large number of prostitutes, who, openly and
unblushingly, pursue their calling, without the least step
being taken by the police, who are very rarely to be seen
in the neighbourhood, to check the evil, much to the
annoyance of - all parties passing from thence to
the London-road. And, with shame be it
said, perhaps the Sunday evening is the worst time of the
week, when the annoyance is the greatest, and the most
disgraceful scenes are enacted. Surely Major Greig,
with the force he has at his command, could take some
steps to prevent such gatherings—or, at least, adopt some
system to put a stop to, public decency being thus
outraged

but no