The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-01 00:00:00

IIMES.--We are sorry to be obliged to recur to
the subject of Greenwich Hespital. If you inform a
private gentleman that a great abuse is being car-
ried on in a matter under leis control, he generally
looks into it at once, remedies it, and is t hankful for
the information. But it is quite a difLrent thing
with public bodies. They are aptly so callecl,for they
generally have no soul, and therefore no conscience.
The utmost that ever can be said in their excu-e is
that, like unreasoning beings,they act unconsciously
and without reflection. Complaints which have no-
thing but right to recommend them never disturb
their repose. It requires reiterated cracks of the
whip of public opinion to make them understand
that they must charge their course. As our re-
marks, therefore, the other day do not seem to have
had their due effect, we must beg the attention of
our readers to a few details on the subject. The Ad-
miralty may be assured that the public will not
allow this matter to drop. It is of vast importance
to the well-being of the Navy, and, therefore, of
the country, and the abuses are too gross and ob-
vious to be overlooked. We have already given our
readers a general idea of the waste and misappro-
priation of the funds of the Hospital, and we showed
that no less than two-thirds of the money of the in-
stitution had been diverted from its proper purpose.
But it will put the matter in-w-stitt stronger eight
if we enter a little into the details of this misappro-
priation. The Hospital is administered by a large
Staff of Military, Civil, and Medical Officers. The
military Government is at present in the hands of
a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, four Captains,
three Commanders, six Lieutenants, and three Mas-
ters. The number of men who absorb all this ad-
ministrative agency is at present 1,500. We say
" at present," for there ought to be 2,642 men in the
Hospital. That, however, does not affect the argu-
ment, for, as our correspondent showed the other
day, the number of governors has increased as the
number of men to be governed has diminished. Let
our readers compare this proportion of officers to
men with that which exists in a man-of-war. Let
them remember, besides, that in the latter case the
men are in constant activity and require con-
tinued supervision, while in the Hospital they have
nothing to do, and the officers have only to exercise
tha most'general superintendence. Add to this that
all the minor work of supervision is done in the
Hospital, as on shipboard, by petty officers, and
then let them draw their own conclusions as to the
use or excuse for so large a staff. All these officers
cannot be wanted; and it is evident they are not,
for many of them would be quite unable to do their
work if they were. The posts are mere excuses for
giving them salaries. Now we beg our readers'
attention to what these salaries are. The
Governor receives £1,500 a year as his nomi-
nal salary. In addition to this he receives
£766 102. a year as half-pay, pensions for
wounds—of which, as fairly and honourably earned,
we will not say a word—and, besides this, all man-
ner of allowances for oil, coal, wood, candles, &c.
And, lastly, he has apartments which amount to a
handsome house. All the other salaries are in pro-
portion. Each of the three commanders receives
£3OO a year salary, £155 23. 6d. a year half-pay,
and, as one of them, who is non-resident, receives
£2 12s. 6d. a week for lodgings, we may assume
that their apartments represent £125 a year, and
they enjoy the same sort of allowances as the
Governor. These are only two instances ; we can-
not go through them all. But after this our readers
will not be surprised to hear that the cost of the
military and medical officers of the hospital in 1859
was £14,664, and this to look after the good order
and the health of no more than 1,500 men ! We
are sure that in order to convince our readers of the
abuse we charge upon the Admiralty it is only
necessary to state these facts. There is no need of
argument to prove that this is not the way in which
it was intended that;the funds of the Hospital should
be applied. We are perfectly aware of the excuse
which will be set up. It will be maintained that
it was within the intention of the founders of the
Hospital that a certain number of meritorious and
disabled officers should derive some support from its
funds. Now, we draw our readers' particular at-
tention to a short extract, contained in a letter
which we publish in another column, from the Act
of Parliament, passed in 1696, by which the "sea-
men's sixpences" were given to the Hospital. It
provides that " the widows of seamen slain, killed,
or drowned in the sea service, and the children of
such seamen so slain, killed, or drowned, and not
of ability to maintain or provide comfortably for
themselves, shall be received into the said Hospital,
and there be piovided for." Will any one main-
tain that an Admiral in the receipt of half-pay to
the amount of £766 10s. and pensions besides, or
a captain in the receipt of £l9l 12s 6d. as half-pay
and £9l ss. as pensions, is not able to provide com-
fortably for himself ? But if the Admiralty are not
prepared to defend this absurd proposition, they
must admit that all the appointments we have men-
tioned are contrary to the purposes of the Hospital.
It is obvious, however, that they have totally dis-
regarded this consideration, and indeed all the con-
siderations set forth in our correspondent's letter.
One of their last acts was to appoint to the office of
Commissioner on the Civil Staff of the Hospital, with
a salary of £6OO a year and an allowance of four
guineas a week for lodgings, and with no duties but
to attend the Board at Greenwich an hour a week,
the late Accountant-General of the Navy, who has
retired from that post with a pension of £l,OOO a
year. Our correspondent forcibly points out that
they are running in the teeth of the Acts of Parlia-
ment relating to the Hospital by refusing to pro-
vide proper support for the wives and widows and
families of the seamen, and every possible excuse for
this gross and cruel neglect is taken away by the
fact that, after paying all these extravagant ex-
penses, they had a surplus in 1859 of £28,387, and
in 1860 of more than £40,000. This is going be-
yond all reasonable abuse. A little mismanagement,
a little misappropriation, is to be expected in all
such concerns. To err is human, and to job is
official, and moderate jobbing, as moderate error, is
easily pardoned. BuZ there is a limit to forgiveness
in both cases, and this jobbing passes every limit.
We cannot but add that if the Admiralty persist in
this course it will no longer be possible to put a
favourable construction on their conduct. We give
them every credit for having been led into these
abuses unconsciously, but now that they are pointed
out to them they cannot with honour delay imme-
diate redress. If they refuse to listen to the plain
justice of this matter, it will be only possible to
draw one or two conclusions—either that they know
they are acting unjustly, and persist in so acting
from motives of interest, or that they are insensible
to the commonest considerations of reason and
justice. It is easy for them to affect to disregard
articles and letters in newspapers, and we acknow-
ledge the wisdom of the course, and so we do that
of the steward in the parable. but we should think
the Admiralty wouli hardly be content to
earlihis
however,
praise at the expense of his epithet. If, -d to
they will take this course, and are determine
prefer prudence to honour and interebset to justice, is
will employ
there no member of Parliament
the time which is wasted in. freiveoinlowns motions every
pelting the refor-
Tuesday and Friday p If the hardships of
night in
mation of so grave an abuse _ _
.Boyal Commission for the
21 colonels can obtain a
the
ebrisk debate, is there no one
asking, and excite
claims of 12,000 helpless
who will enforce
th
put a op to the shameful abuseofa
seamen, and
great public trust ?
ululated by the
Post—StiGeorge-street murder
the parochial authorities of St. Giles's are taking
measures of ejectment against several householders
in the imm, diate locality ; personshouses. who, as the
form of indictment goes, are
offence of keeping o disorderly"
cuses. The amount
of order or disorder s ith which the establishments
in question have been coDductcd being to us un-
known, of course vie
are unprepared to offer any
opinion concerning
th the
plea.at justice
of setting parochial
and very Having frequently,
recently, advocated the recognition, with
a view to regulation and control, of the social con-
dition to Which houses such as those in George-
street have reference, the St. Giles's vestry may
perhaps expect of us more credit in behalf of their
promptness of action than we are prepared to con-
cede. Similar manifestations of parochial vigour
we happen to remember, and the results have not
been such as to warrant much confidence in any
general and comprehensive benefit to accrue from
the present ejectment. A local benefit there may
indeed be, if, for example, the special lodging-
houses in George-street were abolished, through the
operation of parochial or any other law, and their
places filled by establishments for home
mission-
aries, Scripture readers, or any other class of
per-
sons ostensibly engaged in promoting the interests
of religion and morality; then in that case there