The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-21 00:00:00

- -
Sowormat W. totiva auk*, 0.
effects of their present expression of hp:apathy. Al'.
forth operate to the public advantage.—l r-• ••tv if
yours faithfully, ROBE
. •
Prince's-gate, Oct. 20.

• ;
(Front the Times.) •
The subscription for the more effectual relief of our sick :7'7
and wounded countrymen in the East will soon reach what
may fairly be considered a reasonable limit. Ten thou-
sand pounds—which it will probably amount to in a day or 1.
two—is about as large a sum as can be weleappliedefor the
present at least, and certainly as large aiewe would
wlD-
ingly undertake to administer. A letter from the first
subscriber and founder of the fund, iteour cOlniens this
day, states the value and results of the movement so
plainly and simply that we might have contented our-
, selves with a refeeence to it. If, indeed, the telly people
to be considered were the sick and wounded, the Govern-
ment, and the subscribers, we should let-the-matter take
its course, secure of eyrope.thee cc-operatiote_and, if neoes-
sery,. indulgence. But the jealousy betrayed in some
quarters, and still WOTSO feelings exhibited. in- others, inn
adnuycepuusbltoic atmladtat .efre,wauwdos
erdspetcoiaSniyr
in
Ron
oneber t 2godeloelitettema.lartrd. In
ao
sacred as the care of our weenie e t ehatnpions.andsdefestders,
we would gladly disarm jealousy, and obtain, if not the
goodwill, pai,w
rtie:.4.9 ei Tohnerarehveas.s,
ind
eod, at least
been
n 0
00tectalee candoursionforiiloffeezdl
feeling towards
The movement is about as little an affair Of eareeiva sonny
*ork that may chance to acquire publicity and favour
through our columns. Our. correspondent _at Constanti
nople. was under no kind of influence
nncoeo,rth:e4gar.srialenowf when
he described the slate of things
wounded. Had he related from their °Wu lips, and from
the evidence of his own senses, that they hid teceived as
much attention from the day of the battle as they would
in a first-class hospital in this city, and that from first to
'alit we surpassed the French in the attendance of airgeseue
and nurses, and the supply of every imaginable eer4fate
undoubtedly we should have hailed the account 'with
delight, and should most probably have stepped in to. aoya-,
pare our, own practical success with the ostentatious tiaienC
onfeoruerupaollnies. Our correspondent told another tale, and We • -
expressed our deep concern that ho should have to do so.
mevuidneifinctleny
thsa
csid neeo.vtoelblte-herskenno well-known the Wirer of . a
distinguished name, proposed a subscription to do "Thai
their money at our disposal. awedndethhataset
xatnleo rtae,rmnaanptalievpoiseedonbuat
to accept the oharge,—burdensome, anxious, and even in-
vidious as we were likely to find it. We have already
stated what we have-chine, and it -is further described by
Sir Robert Peel. _
It is no small thing that Government has been roused
by this sudden burst of public sympathy, and his found
in it.a emits' of .warrant for greater Activity. Theron:mist; ' e
indeed, -be misconduct or incomPetency somewhere or "
other for so many stores and so many Medical men to be •
sent out, and not to be at hand when they-are wanted ; and
for 2,000 sick and wounded men to remain as they did
•fromeSeptember 20 to September 26. The impulse thus
given to Government, and so readily obeyed by it, does not
come merely from burselves. Our remarks might have
passed unheeded but for the public response. In this
country teen talk very little, and are rather ashamed to '
avow their feelings. They supply the place of rhetoric by
subscriptions, and, when they rush in crowds to subscribe
what we know they can with difficulty spare, we conclude
they are very much moved or impressed. Government,
accordingly, has felt it impossible to resist the mute elo-
quence of seven thousand pounds, subscribed in five or six
days, to do what it ought to have done. It has sent out
fresh and more urgent instructions, unlimited credit, and
orders for an inquiry into the causes of the mismanage-
ment or neglect which has undoubtedly occurred. Govern-
ment does not feel so satisfied that all its officers have done
their duty as some of its supporters affect to be. This is
ono good result of the movement. We expectlome other
results of a very tangible and permanent character. It
is admitted that hitherto there has been no provision
for nurses, or for that kind of assistance that merely
requires a moderate amount of gentleness and strength.
The time of surgeons and assistant-surgeons is too value- .
ble to be employed in such ordinary services. But,
except in regular hospitals and asylums, nursing and the
attendance we have described must always partake of the
Voluntary character. A corps of army nurses would be
liable to very great abuse, and the attempt to employ the
oCfh el soema pensioners
of this sort with a certain sanctity, definite rewards, and
pcormoveesdian glireeraet, fbayiliunrveestil‘nhgelagbeemniurss
even a sacramental character and virtue. • Thus, although
wo will venture to say our sick are as well attended age
nursed in London as in Paris, still in the latter place, aid 6.
throughout France, there was foiled an existing organisa-
tion as ready for the use of the army as the regiments in
garrison. We feel little doubt that henceforth our armies
in the field will always hare some equivalent assistance ;
and, when the soldier finds a good English nurse at his bed
side, two or three thousand milts from ,house, he will owe
it to the lecture of the hospitals at Scutari given in our
columni last week, and the contrast between the.state•of
the French and the British soldiers.
If anybody denies that the presence of a gentleman com-
missioned to inquire and report, having his eyes about
him, and without any wrong bias, will be of use to the pa-
tients of ap hospital receiving shiploada at a time and ter-
ribly underserved, we really have little_more to say to him.
We can say, speaking from mere instinct, and apart from
all political considerations, that if we knew a young rela-
tive to be lying with a shattered limb, or a ball through
Ids lungs, in a crowd of faur thousand sufferers in a mili-
tary hospital on the shores of the Black Sea, we should be
only too glad to hear that a gentleman was daily going the
round of the wards, to report on the attendance, the sup-
ply of medicines, and other particulars. But if volunteers
are to be admitted at all, and it is worth while to send a
visitor'of this sort, there Can be nu doubt-that it is better
still to arm him with money. In the East, especially, no.
thing can be done without times,. Withent it a visitor
will be reduced at every difficulty to fold his arms, and
gay " What could Ido ?" We have no doubt !hat with
money ho will be able soon enough to raise a sufficient
body of native nurses and assistants, for in the nature of
things there must, be good nurses -,wherever there is sick-
ness, childhood, and ego, evliereveiepOojele are born, marry,
rekenegrowold, and die. We want also a body of
.ex-
rienced nurses from England. • Now, it is true that Go-
vernment has given the Ambassador at Constantinople
keno& orders and,unlimited ;Focht for the relief of the
sick intleiVoietided,' but it is equally tree that any gentle•e
wan of our own staff sent on this errand will be teach
more efficacious, much more-free to follow the dictates of.
his own, judgment, with money placed absolutely at his
own dispiesel, than if he had to report to the ambassador
4r some other official and obtain his sanction to every
item of vx-renstiture. It is quite clear that this is an
office for individual energy and responsibility. Govern-
ments and bureaucracies answer pretty well in quiet times,
shen they have only bricks and mortcr, paper and ink,
hips and guns, and other brute material to deal with, and
u times when men's minds are as quiet as that material ;•
but a Government would cut a very sorry figure with its
ebelvez, its red tape' and its signatures upon signatures, in
a shipwreck, a flood, or a coetiagration. The present is a
calamity of this class, and Government has been found '
psuch toe stiff, formal, and unmanageable for it. It is
roposed to assist it with the nil of volunteers, -and • Go-
yerinent very wisely hails this assistance. It dyes so be-
eause it cares more for its sick and wounded soldiers than
for its own- credit, ; or rather, it thinks it 'beet; for that
ere lit to accept information, conniel, and aid, than to re- ,
ject and disdain them.

(Front the Daily Xcwg.) , .
Every incident in our contrict with R usia deepens The
impression, in the minds of thoughtful people, of the
blessedness of our political condition, in comparison with
that of the subjects of the Czar. We have something to
lament and complain of yet—and no reprobation can be
too severe for the imbecility or half-heartedness on the
part of ministers, which has drawn out the war to a de-
structiveness and protraction which might have been
saved by timely heartiness and energy. But looking be-
yond the failures of a particular set of men to the system
of society In which we live, we see what it is to be Britons,
and feel it more deeply with ovary incident that trims up
iu the first chapter of the War. The Queen's Proclama-
tion about the Patriotic Fund comes out in striking con-
trast, to the Czat's requisitions on his subjects for what our
old Kings, before Parliamentary days, used to call " bore-
,olences." The Czar (voes into a war for the indulgence of
is own ambition, and, through a long season of forbear-
nce from his antagonists, pampers hie pride till he can no
°tiger be endured. War ensues ; and he takes from his
nobles their market on the one hand, and their income on
he other; and again, their serfs, from whom alone they
art derive income in the future. He taxes them more and
More in corn and in money; and ordains " free-will offer.
tugs." All this is for himself. His soldiers are a property;
not men and citizens, like ours ; but chattels which it costs
their owner much money to keep in repair or replace.
Whits, the Patriotic Fund of St. Petersburg and Moscow is
a forced levy from contributors who are reported to abhor
the war, and know and care nothing about the soldiers,
f.:xce3t such serfs as they may have been compelled to send
to the army. .
.... _

Our Sovereign will never touch a shilling of our P&.•
triotic Fund. She does not want the money for objects of
her own. She sanctions the national war, as she led out
tho ficet-to'sea ; but it is for the sake of everybody rather
than herself. In the same way she, by this Proclamation,
leads the national sympathies in a case in which self inte-
rest is out of the question. The case is sot ono of saving
the Government some of its duty, like that of supporting
the soldiers' families, when the soldiers were the paid ser-
._
vants of the State ; nor like that of ministering to the
wounded, about which so much argument is at present
Foing forward. More unque.tionahle than either of these
is, in oar opinion, the object of the Patriotic Fund, as lai&
down in the Royal notice.
' A thousand households may he widowed and orphaned in
• a day by such battles as that of the Alma. Those of us who
are out of reach of the personal danger and the immediate
calamity wish for some share in the sacrifice of warfare;
but our soldiers
and if we do not suffer oursclerts, we desire to bear some
pursue war almost
of the sufferings of others. To concentrate our efforts the
Patriotic Fund is proposed for the support and comfort of
the widows, and the education of the children of the scl-
otafstne:ttainedusl:hbeitp;
diem sailors, or marines who fall in the war. We aro not
exclusively. We do not fight except to avoid some greater
evil than war; but when we do, our military
preseutatives put as much heartand and naval re.
soul into .
;ghintilaistaorilluaastiotnhobsey
us if glory were the national ia,a and their work
The consequence is that a inultit they its 'mites.
erphans aro in the midst of us ; ~ i ude of widows and
of them will be in proportion to It
we hope that our care
our civilisation, and of the national the humane character of
Very unlike Russia; and
we
hopaonal sentiment. All this is
accordant with the genuine that the result will be
19th century. character of England in the
•

P.OSTAGEIT---I";:e7re are now
now 33 British
cc.lonies to•and from which the letter postage has been
reduced to GI. In 14 of these colonies the postal ar-
t `n"` ments are under the control of the local colonial
,ntliorti-s, viz., Cevlon. Trinidad, Barbadoes, Bermcda,
NoNa z:!cotia Newloionlland, Ptines Edwar 'il
Itilikll,l, ~';. Helena, the Gold Cogs!, Nev, Brunswick,
New South Wales, South Australia, and Victoria ; in
tlie re:ll:lining 19 colonic.: the pot,ts are.controlled by Vac
11,iti,11 PostinaNter-G-6neral, viz , flong Kong, Antigua,
(1 ibi altar, Granada, Matti, Bet hire, Honduras. Deine.
rai a, yaha.mas, C triaeo, Jamaica, Tobago, St. Vincent,
Montserrat, St. Lucia, Ne. is, S. Kitts, Tortola, and
Dominica. The whole of the 6,1. private ship letter rate
be'.ong.: to the British post-oilicc for letters to or n
Cron
the later mentioned colonies, and on litters to and f
the other coloniei the 6d. private
, ship
divided equally between the local, colonial, a
Governments.
CHARGE OF MURDEP. —,,n .
John Gleeson, of Capparoe,
A Monday
letter rate is
nd British
a man named
nroittsd to Nenagh
w:ts.C:slizes, charged with
gaol to stand his trial at the nc _
_..i.sculin
Alolo.i • of E-il
the murder of Denis ~ ,y,
committed on the Ist of -Augus
, was
then held in that town. which was
t last at the fair which
There have been several
1 persons previouslytied for trial.
committed