The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-30 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

THIS DAY.—Morning, sh. 40m.—Afternoon, 6h. Grn.
To-Monßow.-Morning, 6h. 26m.—Afternoon, 6h. 50m.

,
ajjg s

LONDON, TUESDAY, MAY 30, 1865.

The Greenwich Hospital Bill has been read a
second time, and it is to be hoped that the promises
held out as to its receiving alterations in committee
will be kept, for there are many grave objections to
it as it now stands. Many unsatisfactory changes
have been made from time to time in the conduct
and management of this noble hospital, but it can-
not be said that this last endeavour on the part of
the Admiralty to amend matters has done enough.
In some respects the sweeping changes have gone
too far, as where it is proposed that the numbers
admitted shall be reduced from the one thousand
four hundred, which is the rule at present,
to six hundred; but, as Sir JOHN PAKING-
TON truly observed, they will find it very
difficult to attain this object in a hurry.
The right hon. baronet, although he did not oppose
the second reading of the bill, took occasion to
point out some of its deficiencies and inconsistencies;
and it is to be hoped that attention will be paid to
his suggestions, since his knowledge and experience
render him well qualified to give advice upon so
very important a topic, and one that is so intimately
• associated with the honour and interests of the
country, In the first place, a great error is made
in the Admiralty not allowing a sufficient sum to
those whom they wish to receive out-pensions, in-
stead of remaining inmates of the Hospital. This,
as the right hon. baronet truly observed, was quite a
• mistake. The out-pensions are to range from five-
pence to ninepence a day, while at present the
weekly allowance amounts to a sum of from three to
five shillings, " in addition to all the comforts of the
establishment." It may fairly be asked, what is to
be done with the enormous sums that will be saved
if these charges are made ? and also, it may well be
said, that they should not be made. The money is
essentially for the benefit of these disabled defenders
of their country, and it is quite out of character that
they should be denuded of their rights for whatever
purpose the unwise deduction is made. The Admi-
ralty have not at all succeeded in showing the great
advantages of this scheme of out-pensions and if
they had done so, it is a matter of imperative neces-
sity that the sums thus paid should be quite
equivalent in value to the advantages received by the
seamen when inmates of the establishment. The
framers of this bill may depend upon it that their
arrangements will be hardly practicable, and cer-
tainly will never become popular if they are not

moreliberal in their arrangements. Because a great
part of the funds of this hospital have been wasted
upon over salaries to officials, it is no excuse for
their grinding down the sums paid to those for
whom the charity was first established. However
skilfully the plans are devised it will always be con-
sidered as a dubious scheme to place " this magnifi-
cent establishment on the footing of Haslar or
Netley, and convert it into a mere hospital in the
ordinary sense of the term." The public justly look
with some suspicion on any material change that
is introduced by Government into those great insti-
tutions which are of national importance and in-
terest. It is to be trusted that those members who
are competent to give an opinion will be on the
alert when the Bill gets into committee, and that
there may be no cause to regret hereafter that from
inattention and inadvertency any serious errors
have crept in with this attempt at amendment in
the government of Greenwich Hospital. Sir J.
PAKINGTON summed up some of the evils of the
present scheme when he alluded to the vague idea
which is given of what is to be done with the large
sums that are not accounted for. He said it was
too much the principle of the old saying, "Open
your mouth and shut your eyes, and see what the
Admiralty will do for you." No one is more
competent than the right hon. baronet to judge of
the opportunities which the Admiralty have of
performing new tasks ; and, as he put his veto upon
this novel assumption of duty on their part, we may
fairly conclude that it is an unwise and will prove
an unsatisfactory proceeding. He said that either
the property will be " administered by an irrespon-
sible officer, or else the whole management will be
thrown into the hands of the Board of Admiralty,
which was already overwhelmed with work." The
independent commission which the right hon. baronet
recommended would no doubt be the best thing,
and there is reason to doubt that this soi-disant
reform of the Admiralty will be at all worthy of
the name, unless the Admiralty turn over a new
leaf in their ability and assiduity. Mr. AYRTON
made some suitable suggestions in reference to this
measure, and his remedy relative to the claims of
merchant seamen is worthy of notice. The hon.
member said that it was now proposed to bring back
the hospital to its original purpose, and make it
available for those disabled in body and mind, and
not remain "an asylum where people were
to live under a kind of semi-naval discipline."
Under these circumstances, Mr. AYRTON advised
the Admiralty to inquire into some of the original
purposes for which the hospital was founded, one of
which was that any seaman who had served in any
ship belonging to any subject of her MAJESTY
should contribute sixpence a month for the better
support of the hospital, and to augment its revenues.
Certainly this carries out the motion of the hon.
member that this hospital was established for the
benefit of seamen serving in the mercantile marine
as well as in the Royal Navy. There is sense and
good feeling in the proposol of the hon. member,
that the unoccupied part of the hospital shall be
appropriated to the benefit of distressed seamen
of the mercantile navy. Mr. AYRTON very pro-
perly reminded the Government that they had
shown themselves very sensitive in respect to
the officers, whose " chief claim had been
that they have for many years mismanaged the
affairs of the hospital," and, therefore, they should
now attend to the claims of the seamen. Mr. LID-
DEL very truly said that a princely revenue had been
wasted on establishment charges, and he desired to
see the revenue extended and applied for the benefit
of the savor. One of the chief things to be looked to
in the Committee, is that the pensions granted to
men are of sufficient value so as to answer the ends
in view, and permit the recipients to enjoy those
comforts of which they stand in need, and which
they urgently require. Unless this desideratum is
attained there will be nothing for the Admiralty to
plume themselves upon in the changes that have
been made. Indeed it would have been better to
have left things altogether alone than to have in-
troduced new difficulties with the already compli-
cated case. A grave responsibility will rest with
the House in this matter of Greenwich Hospital,
and it is to be hoped that the opportunity will not
be allowed to pass away unimproved.

The answer of Lord PALMERSTON to the question
put by Sir JOHN WALSH on Friday evening was, to
say the least of it, unsatisfactory and evasive. One
would think that there need not be much considera-
tion on the part of the Government in respect to
such a preposterous and insulting demand as the
claim for compensation from England for the
damage inflicted on the Federal shipping by Con-
federate cruisers built in our ports. The request
has so little foundation in right or reason, is so
contrary to the general law of nations, and in such
marked opposition to the conduct of the United
States themselves, that we can hardly regard it as
serious. It must rather be looked upon like the
complaints made by the wolf against the
lamb in the good old fable, only wanted
as pretexts for active antagonism. If we
have not done one thing we have done another, or
if no sins of commission can be proved against us,
there is a long list of sins of omission to be laid to
our charge. The South, if it had yet a Govern-
ment, might with a good deal more reason demand
compensation for the injuries inflicted on land by
means of English arms and ammunition shipped
without let or hindrance from English ports, and
for the injuries inflicted upon her cause by the
wholesale enlistment of English subjects. But Mr.
ADAMS is, perhaps, not so inconsistent in putting
forward this claim as may appear at first
sight. He has all along accepted the neu-
trality of this country as an obligation which
we are under to the Federal cause, and Lord
RUSSELL having meekly agreed to all he says, has
naturally tended to confirm him in that opinion.
But the accession of the violent and intemperate
faction which at present rules at Washington has
been followed with startling rapidity by the reitera-
tion of this demand. We have during the last few
years been at intervals reminded of this rod held in
terrorer n • over us by the terrible Americans, who
only wait till more pressing business is con-
cluded to punish the Britishers. At first the
idea was laughed at in this country, it being
scarcely thought possible that American states-
men could lend themselves to such a preposterous
claim, but after a time it was actually put forward
officially, meeting, as it deserved to do, with a
prompt and uncompromising refusal, on the autho-
rity of the law officers of the Crown. Why, then,
should Lord PALMERSTON hesitate, and evade a
direct and explicit account of the policy of the Go-
vernment? There is no great mystery about the
communication ; there are no complicated diplo-
matic arrangements to be effected. A question has
been put, demanding an answer, yes or no ; and
surely the House of C ommons /night be favoured with
the information which monosyllable has been selected.
The matter looks at present very much as if our
Cabinet has grown even more timid since the
Northern armies are disengaged, and will be very
reluctant to give a decided answer to the late em-
phatic demand. We should advise those members
of the Commons who have some regard for the
honour and interests of their country to insist upon
obtaining an answer to this question before the re-

cess, since recent experience has painfully shown
how little Lords PALMERSTON and RUSSELL are to
be trusted to speak and act for this country in their
dealings with Washington•

It is not often that an Irish Bill is discussed
in the House of Commons without some asperity,
and accordingly it was only to be expected that
the Constabulary Force Amendment Act should
encounter some opposition. Still, its general scope
and object must commend it to the public at
large, although naturally the representatives of
Irish boroughs and counties were disposed to dis-
pute the details. The riots at Belfast were felt
to be disgraceful to our civilsation by men of all
parties. They seemed to indicate that our social
system was ill-organised, and that while we had
all prided ourselves on being able to preserve
the height of order by purely civil authority, riots
of the most serious character might break out at
any moment which, all the local force would be
powerless to quell. In a country of such strong
religious and political partisanship as Ireland it is
naturally a matter of great difficulty to appoint
any officials who will allow their local feeling to be
subordinate to their public duty ; but' certainly
when out of 165 policemen only two are Catholics,
such a division is likely to be most unfavourable to
the preservation of the public peace. The natural
consequence is that any outbreak on the part
of the Orangemen is passed over so lightly
as to encourage a party always too ready
for violent demonstrations, and to sow the
seeds of future riots. There can be no question
that in the disgraceful disturbances of last year it
was clearly shown that the present constabulary
arrangements are most inefficient, and therefore the
Government has acted wisely in pushing on this
measure. Its object is to embody as far as possible
the resolutions of the late committee. It is proposed
that to the Belfast quota of 130 men the Govern-
ment shall add 320, to be paid out of the Consoli-
dated Fund, so as to raise the constabulary to 450.
It is also proposed to constitute Belfast a county
by itself, having a separate force of its own to act
within its own radius, as in the case of Limerick,
Galway, and Londonderry. The hon. member for
the latter county appeared to feel aggrieved at the
unequal distribution of the force. Londonderry, he
observed, with a population of 184,209, was allowed
only 120 men, while seven other counties, each
having a population of less than 100,000, had forces
varying from 140 to 220 men. But Mr. DAWSON
seemed to forget that what he himself said on behalf
of the county was a sufficient reason for this ap-
parent slight. Londonderry, it appears, is the only
county in the three kingdoms which has not had
an execution in it during :the last 120 years—the
last having taken place in 1745. If a
county or a borough is sufficiently orderly
and well-managed to preserve the public peace
with a small force it has certainly iro reason
to complain that it is not burdened with a large one.
As to the question of distribution, the Irish repre-
sentatives forget that it was not a matter to be
settled by a mere reference to numbers, and that if,
as was stated, large and populous counties are lightly
taxed while poor ones are made to pay heavily for
police rates, the reason is not to be found in the
lesser numbers, but in the greater turbulence of the
population. The city of Belfast has recently

- -
favoured us with an example of riot and bloodshed,

of defiance of the law and of social convulsion,
which is happily very rare in these islands. For
years past, as Sir R. PEEL observed, the state of
things had been a disgrace to the borough of Belfast,
and last year it had resulted in the death of 13 or
14 and the maiming of nearly 100 persons. When
riots are allowed to prevail during 18 days it is quite
evident that the existing force wants either the will
or the power to maintain order, and accordingly
the passing of this measure is a very wise and
timely act, which, it is to be hoped, may prevent
the repetition of such disgraceful proceedings.