The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-09-02 00:00:00

SNOLISH OPERA HOUSE.

After a brief rustication, Mr. Mathews has resumed his
issuer at this theatre, to the great discomfiture of blue
lads sad the vast augmentation of " the stock of harm.,
Ito pleasure" in the metropolis. He appeared last night
at sone of the small comedies peculiar to this house, and
although we are entrain* to find fault, yet must we say
that it is more delightful to see him in his monologues—an
miss by himself—than making one of a joint-stock corn -
Fsay of actors. The truth is, that Mr. Mathews is so
full of fun, whim, activity, frivolity, song, and life,
when alone, that the effect of his exhibition is much
iuipsired when third and fourth-rate people are mixed
up wOh him in the performance. He was received
ea his entre with the loudest applause, and in the
Bapliful Man played with his usual effect, and if pos.
fable, with more than his usual spirit. This piece is
the work of Mr. Monerieff (a prolific fabricator of farms
and astravagansim), and is said to be founded on a tale
written by Mr. Repton, bearing the same name. Much of
me of the best scenes is taken from Addison's humorous
;2seription of an Absent Man. It is, with all these aids,
IPwe production, filled with abortive jokes and vapid
t, s .4. Some of the situations are ludicrous, and enable
+!: Mathews to display a vast deal of cleverness and
acr. The scene of the dinner is infinitely amusing.
grattet cynic cannot forbear from laughing at the
uase% is apiie of all his sympathy for the sufferings of
the pear victims*, maileaise honk. Mathews contrives to
wile so eridkmelliugh, without exciting any feeling of
:unwept in the audience. None but a skilful artist can
,!,, di.—and he is a skilful artist. The drunken scene
slalom without a parallel for its inimitable truth, vi-
wvity, and drollery. But even this actor, with all bis
tbilay, could not prevent the piece from going off
very heavily. After the smart interlude of Gretna
Grees, Mr. Mathews appeared in Jonathan W.
Dealudrine, in Peake's well-known afterpiece. This
portrait of agentiac Yankee, though somewhat overcharged,
is in othfr respects a singularly faithful likeness of the
class it is intended to represent; we mean the New-Eng-
Imams. It is of that order of persons that the immense
western territory of the United States is now being peopled,
and therefore Al athews's performance is worth being studied.
The goodoatnred self sufficiency, the ignorant conceit, the
downright integrity, activity, obstinacy, and loquacity of
the Yankee, are inimitably given. Such is the truth of the
picture, that even a thoroughbred American can scarcely be
offeridini with it. The audience recognised their old
favourite, and bailed him with reiterated welcomes. The
other parts were well represented, particularly Agamemnon
(Jonathan's " nigger") by Slornan ; and Natty Larkspur
by Keeley. The house was extremely well attended, and
the last piece was received with very considerable ammo-
!)atiin.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE BRITISH PRESS.

lit September.
Sta—Having read some very excellent observations in
the British Peet: on the subject of St. George's Hospital,
when the case of the poor man Tay, coa was brought
before a Coroner's Jury, 1 beg leave to offer some remarks
on the nature and result of the inquiry into the circum-
stances of this case, which was gone into by the Weekly
Board of Governors in that hospital, in consequence of the
official communication made to them by Mr. Higgs, De-
puty Coroner of Westminster. It is a case of great public
interest, and ought not, as happens too often with such
eases, to make an impression merely for the moment, and
br den suffered to pass by and be forgotten. It is the
suffering charges of this nature to be slurred over by an
invistigation, gone into by the parties interested for the
mere purpose of throwing dust in the eyes of the public,
that encourages all the shameful abuses in such In-
stitutions. Wherefore are they thus sheltered that commit
them? because if brought home, they would involve those
whose bounden and imperative duty it is to prevent them.
The public say, very naturally and very justly, if the nurses
and attendants of the hospitals were fitly chosen and pro-
perly surrintended—if the whole were placed under pro-
per regulations, and if complaints of improper treatment
could be made at once to an authority which could be
readily and at any time appealed to with effect; these acts
of neglect anti inhumanity could not grow up as they do
into a system, nor would the unfortunate patients be ex-
aied as they arc to the careless treatment of nurses and
underlings in authority, made callous to suffering by habit,
anti against whose ill treatment, from the very nature of
their situation, it is not only vain to hope for redress, but
daegerous to seek it.
Now, Sir, the result of the examination into this case
has heen—as those who well know the mode of conducting
se,h inquiries might have predicted—not only to char the
p:rsoes complained °vinyl of all blame, but to shift it from
them to Me partiss complaining. The nurse (Armstrong),
in suit. 2 of the sworn testimony against her, is purged of
an ; the charge against her, it seems, " is entirely
ei:hout foundation;" and the porter Allen's inhumanity is
fund isistifiable on his awn showing. "It appears to the
says the St earraav, in his letter to the Deputy
Comber, ' that if blame is to be imputed, it should be to
the ssfartinote patient himself, and his wife or female
friend, either of whom mull have been aware that ip there
had been any real ground of complaint, such complaint
would hare been attended to, if stated to the resident
Chaplain, or airy one of the medical officers or Governor: of
the charity."
But they know very little of the internal economy of
hospitals, upon whose credulity this grave declaration
mull be palmed even for a moment. Can any man of
common sense be made to believe that the poor man's
wife, who was teemed Gut of the ward fir remonstrating,
would have so remonstrated against the kind treatment
of her husband on the part of Armstrong ? Is it at
all likely that, poor as she was; she would have per-
suaded 'her husband to leave the Hospital, had his
tr.ument been what it ought to have been? Would the
Lnhappy patient hinaseff have been induced to leave it,
ohm in a state so dangerous that he only returned to it to
die, had be not felt that even the risk of death was pre-
ferable to remaining? Would all this have taken place
had nothing more been necessary than the above short
process of stating a complaint, in order to have the cause
of it forthwith removed? All this finely regulated system
is t lady boasted upon paper ; but it is suite another affair
when you come to the matter of fact. the theory is one
thing, the practice is another. lam far from asserting that
the weekly Governors would withhold their attention from
any complaints that were made; but we all know that an
Hospital patient is not in circumstances to wake a present-
ment of abuses; he endures in silence what he feels he
cannot redress, anti it is only when the interposition of
other parties brings some flagrant case before the public,
that the public come to the knowledge of the abuses and
ill management that prevail.

In the reply of the Deputy Coroner to the letter of Mr.
Gunning, the Secretary to St. George's Hospital, he re-
pels the imputation so undeservedly cast on the Jury,
.rktli a tinge of sarcasm, though in a tone perfectly
temperate:—

"You inform me that the Weekly Board do not impute blame
et the nurse, nor serious blame to Allen ; but they seem to reflect
on the Jury.
" I unt not aware that the Jurors were acquainted with the dis-
cipline of St. George's Hospital. They heard an oath, that the
deceased had been scolded and sworn at, because he could not carry
coals; that his wife humanely interfered, sad blamed the num for
!Peaking in that way to a sack ; that the nurse then forced
.air out by the shoulders, told the porter not to admit her
4tin. If such conduct was not sufficient to tempt the deceased to
tioPe. Id, not know what could ; unless the cause was increased
by the same nurse having before told the deceased, when he re-
quested her to put a fresh poultice to his hand (which had been
ordered two hours before) that she, to ',finish him, would keep him
Fix bours without it ; that circumstance was also sworn to before
the Jury.
" I Presume on the above being stated to the Board they will re-
tract their oboe:redoes on a Jury both respectable and impartial."
I trust that the cases which have recently been brought
before the public, will have the effect of introducing a
more effeedve discipline, and a more humane superintend-
ence into these Establishments, which are supported at so.
Peat an expenditure of public charity. If the confidence
of the public in them is once shaken, there will soon be
an end of those almmitnt resources at present created by
1" Phihnthropy. That this efft.et has been in some measure
Produced, is certain. Let us hope that the late exposures
will tend to introduce a reform in the internal management
of thane most useful Institutions, and the law exposures
will then hive answered their purpose.
A SUBSCRIBER.