The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

PosT.—lt is not without sincere regret that the
English Government is about to decline to give its
adherence to the proposed European Congress. We
cannot but feel that the purpose of the Emperor
Napoleon was worthy of admiration, but at the same
time it has not appeared to the statesmen of this
country that the means by which he wishes to carry
out his projects of peace would in reality effect what
he aims at. We objacted at the outset to a vague
Congress, to be convened for indeterminate purposes.
This objection has been met in the most candid spirit,
and whilst the Cabinet of Paris naturally felt that
it would be impossible to trace out a positive pro-
gramme, and to determine for the Congress what
would in some measure appertain to its own deci-
sion, nevertheless it has been understood that pre-
liminary negotiations might be entered upon which
could hardly fail to have the result of confin-
ing the deliberations of the representatives of Europa
to pending questions. Thus it became evident that
a Congress was to be summoned, not to recast the
map of Europe, nor to attempt the solving of new
problems, but to settle in a business-like way the mat-
ters which give rise to present uneasiness and
menace us with future complications. With this
intention the suggestion was thrown out that if
the Congress could succeed in dealing with Poland,
Schleswig-Holstein, Italy, and Moi.do-Wallachia,
it would amply fufil the aims which originated the
proposition for its meeting. To practical minds in
England this has seemed a scheme presenting too
many difficulties for its realisation. Negotiation has
already failed with Russia, and it is thought here that
while we could say nothing more in Congress than
we have already said in despatches, to which we have
a final answer, it would hardly become us to meet her
with the olive branch in our hand and no new re-
solution in onr heart, while she still continues her
career of extermination in Poland and when her
representative would appear with a sword still drip-
ping with the bloodshed we fain would arrest. If
we turn to other questions other obstacles meet us.
True, the state of Holstein is menacing, and the re-
lations between Germany and Denmark in much
peril; but what could a Congress effect that is not
already secured by the treaty of 1852, by which
the great Powers and many of the minor German
States are already solemnly bound? If they do not
observe its letter, all conventions are but as so much
waste paper. Even the very States, Hanover and
Saxony, which have lately been directed to carry
out the Federal execution in Holstein, are parties
to the Treaty of 1852, and by it obliged to main-
tain the rights of King Christian. If duty and
honour fail to bind Kings and Governments, of
what use is it to register in Congress Acts which
could derive no additional value from that process ?
If, again, we look to Italy, what can we effect
there ? The Austrian would quit the assembled
plenipotentiaries the moment the word Venetia
was mentioned. Of what avail would it be even
for a majority of the remainder to record their
wish that the Kaiser should abandon his hold on
that portion of Italy ? The wish would be as value-
less as if it were uttered by the Anthropological
Society. A Congress could have no power to de-
stroy existing rights. Independent Powers would
each in its own interest refuse to acknowledge a
new and unheard-of despotism. No State would
be safe if existing law were tampered with or
ignored. And while Italy was treated of, sup-
posing Venice to be passed over, would King
Victor Emmanuel be glad to see his limits per-
manently traced and all hope for the Queen of the
Adriatic for ever shut out? Would he feel that any
sanction of the Powers in Congress would give any
useful validity to that ample recognition of his rights
of which he is already in possession ? Or would it
serve any real or tangible end to record once more
the profession of France that she is desirous to quit
Rome ? VV hile it seems difficult to answer these
questions in any satisfactory manner, still more
hopeless does it appear to expect to attain any good
result by meddling with and opening up the great
Eastern question. Russia would gladly seize the
opportunity of asking to be relieved from the obli-
gations she entered into in 1856, while she would pre-
fer endless accusations, against the Porte, and seek to
sow seeds of new troubles in every part of Turkey.
Such are a few of the difficulties that are aroused

in this country, and all that can be urged to dis-
miss them is, that by refusing to meet questions
you do not dispose of them, and that it might be
preferable to discuss, face to face, and to attempt
to settle quickly, those affairs which must inevitably
form the subject of protracted negotiations between
Cabinets' On weighing the advantages of the course
proposed against the disadvantages, the latter seem
to English minds to weigh down the scale, and Ap
prehension sways the balanco against Hope
Whilst, therefore, we admit the force and eloquence
with which the Emperor advanced the scheme which
his fertile and ingenious mind suggested ; whilst we
concede that if high purpose and strict logic could
rule the world, the proposed meeting might bring
about great results, it strikes Englishmen that this
new remedy will not in reality heal old sores or prove
a specific against new complaints. The Ministers
of a constitutional country do not feel themselves
justified in advising their Sovereign to send her
representatives to a meeting which they regard
as Utopian. We cannot blame them for this.
It is a great responsibility to assent to a Congress
which might only become the beginning of discord.
And we must admit that though such a meeting, as
in days gone by, may be necessary after a great
convulsion, it is difficult in peaceful times to consti-
tute any other tribunal than that which holds its
seat in the general conscience and finds its expo-
. .

nent in public opinion.
TIMES.—The mutual struggles between the Go-
vernors of St. Thomas's Hospital, the public, the
united and divided parishes on the south side of the
Thames, the Governors of Bethlehem Hospital, the
Metropolitan Board of Works, and everybody who
could get hold of a corner of interest in the matter,
seem likely at last to have been finally decided. A
general Court of Governors, held on Tuesday last,
approved an agreement entered into by the Grand
Committee with the Metropolitan Board of Works
for the purchase of seven acres of ground to be re-
claimed from the river at Stangate, and the agree-
ment only awaits the sanction of the Court of
Chancery to be finally settled. The public will pro-
bably think that the sooner this is done the better.
A better site might, no doubt, have been found for
the Hospital than Stangate. The course which re-
commended itself to common sense was for St.
Thomas's Hospital to remove to the site of Bethle-
hem, and for Bethlehem to be removed into purer
air and larger grounds in the country. Common
sense, however, is not to be expected in Grand
Committees and the short-sighted rapacity of the
Governois of Bethlehem made such an arrangement
impossible. Failing that, and finding that public
opinion would not allow them to indulge their
singularly original project of a metropolitan Hos-
pital in the country, the Grand Committee must
have been glad to find so good a site as Stangate
at their disposal. They must, indeed, have had a
troublesome time of it the last nine months. It
would be interesting to know the feelings which are
entertained by the Grand Committee towards the
Directors of the South Eastern Railway Company.
To be turned out of their old domain, and to be left
to find seven acres in London wherever they could,
and, worse than that, to be exposed to incessant
petitions, remonstrances.; and threats from the
parishes of Southwark, !.,o an infinite amount of all
sorts of advice, and finally to be handed over to the
tender mercies of the Metropolitan Board of Works
—all this combined can hardly conduce to a state of
benevolence towards its authors. Perhaps, indeed,
the consideration may explain the otherwise unac-
countable fancy of the Governors for removing a
London charity entirely away from London. Taey
may have wanted to get as far away from the South
Eastern Railway as possible. There is not much
to complain of in the site they have at last deter-
mined on. In some respects it is even better than
Bethlehem. We are hardly able to judge of it fairly
yet, for, in fact, it hardly exists. We associate tenet
side of the river opposite the Houses of Parlia.ni
with filthy mud-banks and smells the revems
wholesome ; and it must be confessed that,a
veryll
eligible sites for a hospital. But it must
Thames exists at present, its banks do note
seem
_ b
freeingthe
a remem-
bered that we are steadily and surely
eihyat
ac-
river from its impurities, and when
other site. The
pure air than can be obtained in any
r vo work is
of
lume
complished its banks will enjoy g r
f
mWe aofrtke rs
banked by Dec. 31, 186
os ao rmd e ot
an
d shall
will reclaimed d em-
contract with the Metropolitan
stipulates that the land shalt
1865;
that before the new Hospital • built,
and by the
time it can be occupied i.t eB
the new drainage scheme
ought to be completed and the embankment, of the
river considerably advanced. When those two
works are successfully carried out there will be few
sites so healthy or so pleasant. The river affords a
cheap and easy means o f access to the Hospital,
and the site of the new Hospital will be as
complete a reproduction as possible of that of
the old St. Thomas's at on- rid 1.4.3 n b • dge. As
everybody except the Governors of Bethlehem
wanted to get hold of the Hospital,it was to be
expected that wherever the Governors went they
would leave a train of
dissatisfied
claimants behind
them. It is not sa • rprising, therefore, that the
St. Olave's district Board
of Works and the other
parishes of Southwark o ject to the site as " highly
' inconvenient to the sick poor of Southwark.'
They have not, however, very much
to complain of.
The new site will certainly
not
be inaccessible to
the Southwark population. The distance from

London-bridge to Westminster-bridge on
id Guy's
side of the river is not at all formidable, a,
jag mediatecit
Hospital remains to answer the more
wants of the old neighbourhood. Besides, the y
the south
has grown to the west far more than to the e. !!
continues to grow in the same direction, and it 1:
not unreasonable that the Hospital should to se Tn:
extent advance with the population. Indeed, a u
mere removal of the Hospital may prove an advan-
tage. Guy's and St. Thomas's were unreasonably'
near each other, and to separate them n.lay very
much increase their usefulness. Two large Hos-
pitals within a stone's throw of each othar is too
much for any neighbourhood, and, so long us St,'
Thomas's is not entirely divorced from its of in"
purpose, it will be just as well that it should ,cee
within the reach of the western population. L;_tle
t
fact brought forward by a member of one of
deputations on Tuesday, that more out-patiehl'e
have been treated at the Hospital during the timor e'
it has been at the Surrey Gardens than in any c
responding time of its old situation, seems to prove
that it has been brought within the range of a
population which requires its help. The fact, hew-
ever, only serves to show the advantage of re"
moving it fron its old site, and throws no
ag
upon the relative advantages of the Surrey GardeGS
and the Stangate sites. It is very possible that just
the same result might have been arrived at if the
Hospital had been removed at once to Stank:lll,e'
The founders of our old Hospitals would probablY;
have been astonished if they could have witness,'
the public interest which has been excited about thea
removal of St. Thomas's. When they founded
simple benevolent institution they could never have
imagined that the question of its site would be hell
debated by all the parishes of Southwark, that iV
would engage the active attention of the public
press, and would even be considered a knot wortll9-
the interference of so great a divinity as the Hollis
Secretary. but hospitals, like colleges, have becoale
no longer private or independent establishments,
but great public institutions, indissolubly bound a
S
with the well-being of the community. Hospital
are now as necessary an element in our social ore-
nisation as courts of law and universities. With
the vast increase of our population they have becoule
absolutely essential to the general health, and if
they did not happily exist by private munificence,
it would be necessary to establish them by public
authority. In short, they are institutions of a not,
merely charitable, but a necessary public use,
the public, therefore, have a right to expect that,
they will be managed with the best possible rewire
to the general advantage. It is satisfactory that the
governors of St. Thomas's have at least not disre"
garded this claim.