The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-12 00:00:00

attached to all who have dealings with them here,
so that hereafter they may not think that sufficient
chance was not given them to repent of their evil
ways, and to fall down before the footstool of that
infinite mercy which holds out hope for the chief
of sinners, nor denies the promise of grace at the
eleventh hour, if only it is sought by the prayer
of faith.

A Shillizig Guide Book, of a rather unusual kind,
came under our notice the other day, i..nd appeared
to us, though nothing more than a Guide Book, one
of the most affecting and eloquent publications we
had for a long while met with. It was all this,
simply for inasmuch as it was a Guide Book to the
Charities of London. All the Eleemosynary In-
stitutions of the metropolis were therein catalogued.
The volume was literally no more than a mere list
of names and addresses, but every individual entry in
it was the representative of an organised system of
benevolence, Among those establishments we do not,
for a single instant, hesitate to assert that one of
the most beneficent of all—one of those institutions
the most entitled to our sympathy—is that Royal
Free Hospital in Gray's-inn-load, whose 3701
Anniversary Festival was celebrated, not quite a
week ago, in Freemasons' Hall, and to whose Ear-
nest Appeal we would now, more cordially and
more fervently than we have ever done yet, direct
the general attention of the public. The very title of
the noble institution we have named is the justifica-
tion of any panegyric that might be pronounced upon
it. As the gifted Chairman at Wednesday's Dinner
took occasion to remark in the course of his admir-
able speech in giving the toast of the evening—
" The distinguishing character of the Royal Free
Hospital is amply expressed by its simple name.
It is A Free Hospital!" exclaimed Mr. CHARLES
DICKENS, the Chairman of the night. "No recom-
mendation,"he reminded his audience with impnssive
simplicity, " no recommendation is needed by the
suffering creature who there seeks admission. No
letter from a governor, or a subscriber, or what not,
has with difficulty to be hunted out. Look at me !
Look at me ! lam sick, poor, helpless, forlorn ."
These are the patients' credeatiale' —when seeking
admission to the Royal Free Hospital. Never could
the Great Novelist's own" Maggy" in Little Dorrit
exclaim (poor half witted Waif and Stray of Society)
with more earnest reason, than in speaking of this
very institution, "0, ain't it Hospitally !" The
appeal annually made to the public at large on
behalf of the Royal Free Hospital, an appeal at all
times persuasive, never yet, we believe, came one
half so persuasively as it does this year, to the know-
ledge of our London philanthropists. The fact
that it is so has already been demonstrated beyond
the reach of denial by the success attendant upon
that appeal already.
A round sum of £6,100 sterling, it was announced
but very recently, was desired in order to buy up
the entire property of the Hospital in the Gray's-
inn-road, land, building, and all complete. Hitherto
a yearly rental of £2OO or £250 has been paid for
the occupancy of the building. Henceforth, that is
to say at least, from the collecting together of the
full amount of the purchase money, the amount of
which has just been mentioned, there will be no
rental at all to pay—the entire property being in
perpetuity the institution's own. £6,100, recollec

That was the sum total of the purchase money
required. The announcement that it was required
was made but very recently. The benevolent
patrons of the institution have but lately
bestirred themselves in collecting it. Yet already,
of that .£6,loo—not less than £5,200 have
even now been gathered together And as
Mr. CHARLES DICKENS has capped the climax
of his sympathetic co-operation in the fur-
therance of this beneficent enterprise by ensur-
ing the guarantee of the odd hundred out
of the aggregate of £G,loo—no more than eight
hundred pounds sterling additional are now needed
to make the total amount of the purchase-money
cGmplete. It rppears that of the .E. 5,200 already
collected within a very brief interval, in the shape
of subscriptions, fully £4,000 had been secured by
the personal agency of the generous hearted Chair-

man of the Board, Mr. GEORGE MOORE, one of the
Merchant Princes of the City of London. When
which same supporter of the Royal Free Hospi-

tal came to be alluded to on Wednesday

during the course of the spuzch delivered by the
Chairman, no wonder that Mr. MooRE had the
gratification of hearing himself spoken of by Mr.
CHARLES DICKENS as " a gentleman present whom
he (the Chairman) was proud to call his friend." Re-
membering, then, that £5,200 out of the £6,100 have
already been actually collected; that £lOO more
Mr. CHARLES DICKENS has formally guaranteed ;

that consequently no more than the comparatively
small sum of £BOO additional is now
needed in order to complete the total

amount of the purchase money—we cannot believe

that ihEra will be any difficulty in so collecting

it. A Hospital that is distinguishable among a

our noble London Hospitals as being The Free
Hospital—a Hospital that, although possess-

ing not yet quite 100 bads can, never-
theless, do so vast an amount of good to
the suffering poor as this one does annually within
its own doors, while at the same time relieving in a
single ,year (as it did in,1862) no less than 60,000
out-patients—is surely a Great Public Charity that
cannot long ask in vain for a little balance of
£BOO.

Many will regret the tone adopted by Count
PERSIGNY. The EMPEROR won golden opinions
from all sides when, in his opening speech, he
counselled the people of France to copy as much
as possible the example of the English people.
Now, however, the Minister of the Interior seems
to repudiate this theory, although it was promul-
gated by one for whom be ought to entertain re-
spect. In the circular addressed to the Prefects of
Departments, he says that the " play" of parties is
very suitable in England, but not in France. He
goes on to say that in a country like theirs this
play of parties can be repeated," but by prolonging
revolution and endangering liberty." After stating
that parties in France are often only factions, he
thus informs the Prefect of his duty :—" The suf-
frage is free; but, in order that the good faith of
the populations may not be deluded by cleverness
of language or equivocal professions of faith, desig.
nate loudly, as in the preceding elections, the can-
didates who inspire the Govet nment with moat con-
fidence. Let the populations know who are the
friends or the adversaries, more or less disguised, of
the Empire, and let them decide in full liberty, but
with complete knowledge of the state of the ease.''
This is a curious version of liberty, and it would tax
the ingenuity of many persons to arrive at the solu-
tion of such a mystery. It is the more to be regretted
because the arrangements that were entered into at
the commencement of the session were apparently
of a permanent class, and gave great satisfaction to
all who fully comprehended the
question, and re-
cognised the importance of rendering the French
institutions as similar as possible to the English.
Such assertions as those referred to can do no good,
and are apt to irritate those to whom they are ad-
dressed, without convincing any one. It is not the
way to conciliate the members of any class of poli-
ticians to tell them plainly, or even to hint, that
they are not fit to be trusted with the responsibili-
ties, az exercise the privileges which they see their