The Sun.
London, England, 1825-08-24 00:00:00

{THE PUBLIC I.F.DGE:::7

There are letters in town from Constantinople
of the 21st ult. addressed to a first-rate house in
the Turkey Trade. They confirm the rumour,
which before rested only upon loose authority,
of the Porte having refused the mediation of the
Great European Powers. The refusal is said to
have been made in the most peremptory, though
not in offensive, terms. This intelligence, per-
haps the forerunner of great events, can yet
surprise no one, who has studied the character
of that Power, which with a proverbial confi-
dence in its own resources, entertains an incur-
able distrust of the Christian Governments ge-
nerally—a distrust which. recent . circumstances
have rather confirmed than weakened. As the
events, too, of this campaign have, upon the,
whole, served to fortify the Porte in its high
opinion of its own means, we see no chance of.
the offer succeeding better a second time, even
if the dignity of the Great Powers would allow
them to try the experiment again. Ali prospect
of an accommodation being effected in this way
between theG reeks and Turks having disappeared,
the next question is, how will the Governments,
who have seen their mediation all but scornfully.
rejected, act in the next place ? The course
that resentment would suggest, would be to
sebstltute armed interference for mediatory
offices ; but there.. are many objections to this.
course, of which the most obvious is, the difficulty
of agreeing among themselves ; and thus their
jealousy of one another is likely to save the Porte
from. this danger. It is therefore probable, that
they will take no formal notice of the proceed-
ing; though it will be, no doubt, stored up in
the breasts of one rr more of them, to be brought
fonyard hereafter, as occasion may require.

[ERITISII PRESS.]

The accusations which have recently been
brought .against St. George's Hospital, for the
culpableaud injudicious treattneat.of its patients,
have very strongly.arrested the public attention:
we trust they will be followed up by that.thornugh
investigation
.on the, part of, the. Goventors which
such. Aiscreditable publicity calls for. The case
brought forward a few weeks since by. Mr. Bailey.
was oue of very considerable: interest, and tbe.
public were by no means satisfied:with the manner
in which it was disposed of. . This unfavourable
impression was not likely to be allayed tj the
evidence given on the inquest taken on the body
of Wiiii.Tity !or, which appeared in the publid,prints
of yesterday. The jury reprobated, and dp.
servedly, the inhuman conduct of the- nurse .Arm•
strong, and of the man Allen ;:and :finally agreed
that the Coroner should lay a representation of the
case before the Beard) which. they felt satisfied

would lead to their dismissal. We hope their anti-
cipated result will follow, and that this will not
add one more to the many cases•of a similar na-
ture which, after being slurred over with a formal
investigation, have been suffered to die away and
be forgotten. Whatever tends to destroy the confi-
dence of the public in the interior management of
those Institutions which the public charity sup-
ports, is a serious evil, and nothing can tend
more effectually to this end than the impression
which some late Inquests on the bodies of hos-
pita! pa'tients has very generally created, that the
benevolent object of these Charitable Institutions
are pe'rverted by neglect or improper manage-
ment on the part of the physicians, and by the
cruelty or carelessness of the nurses, to. whom
the care of the sufferers are entrusted. In every
hospital the kindness of the attendants is of the
very last importance towards accelerating
the recovery of those under their care. If
unfeeling nurses are appointed to various
offices alloted to them in these chambers of
death—for such are the wards of an hospital—
all the purposes of such an establishment are
frustrated, and the generous contributions which
uphold it are worse than thrown away. The Go-
vernors cannot have their eye over this class
of attendants—the very nature of their du-
ties places them out of the reach of observation.
It becomes, from this circumstance, indispensa-
ble that only such persons should be appointed to
such offices, whose natural disposition is patient
and humane, and who from principle are a law
unto themselves. In by far too many instances,
we fear, those situations are filled without much
previous care as to the fitness of the persons
ap-
pointed to them. We earnestly hope that the
facts which the late inquests have disclosed may
put the Governors of these establishments on the
alert; it is a duty which the public have a right
to expect should be much better discharged than
it appears to be. Our public hospitals are sup-
ported at a very heavy ex pence, and they incur a
deep responsibility who assume the office of su-
perintendents without fulfilling, as they ought,
the trust that is reposed in them.

[MORNING HERALD.]
A Correspondent, who has lately travelled
through most of the West and Southern parts of
the country, and who had good means of ascer-
taining the truth of what he asserts,, informs us
that he was sorry to find, in many quarters,
heavy complaints of a great decay and falling off
in the hospitality, and other kind and friendly
feelings, which heretofore used to attach all
ranks of people to a resident Gentry : that among
too many of this rank of society a few set and
showy entertainments have taken the place of
the substantial fare and the hearty welcome
which used to distinguish the halls and man-
sions of our ancestors; -while, by a miserable
and short-sighted economy, the country trades-
man is deserted for the more opulent one in
London ; and the horn of ale, which used to wel-
come every corner of a lower degree, is now en-
tirely disused. The consequence is, that any
thing like attachment is fast subsiding, and
fste feel that both the 'Squire and the Peer
trtikhOts well pass the whole year in Portman-
square,
and at Fishmonger's-hall, if they only
tali‘,.into the country the manners and habits of
the one, with the morals of the other. If this
be a true picture (which to a certain degree, at
least, we fear it is), it presents one of those signs
of the times which it is 'impossible to contem-
plate without apprehension and regret. Fur
the innocence and simplicity of a country life,
either as described by poets or pictured by
youlhful imaginations, we do not look ; but, on
thetyther hand, to see the vices of the Metropolis,
ri a ''. among these, the cold-blooded misanthropy
filf,
o ie gaming-table, carried into scenes which
have hitherto been exempt from them, is a me-
lancholy - prospect for the rising generation.
All this is in a great degree the result of the
money-making system of the late war, and the
taxation it gave rise to, which has expelled
persons of moderate incomes from the soil,
and has, in too many instances, supplied their
places with persons whose wealth is their
only acquirement, and whose only ambition is
how to excel each other in those pursuit's,
which, in the end, add but little to their own
happiness and reputation or to the national
character. We do not say that there are not
still many among our resident gentry who are
the opposite of this description—many who do-
still maintain the good old habits of their
ancestors, and who do sedulously cultivate
the best principles and examples ; but unfortu-
nately we fear such instances are fast diminish-
ing, and unless this rank of society see in time
the error (to call it no worse) which they are
falling into, and the importance of retrieving
the ground which they have lost, a severance
will hale taken place between them and their
dependents which it may take ages to re-estab-
lish. The connecting links which hold
_man
.tOgetlier in society are no where wore visible
or important than in the union which ought
to elcift between the resident gentry of this
country and their neighbours, tenants,, and de-
pendants. In Ireland we see the want of it ;
,for
notwithstanding all the fine-spun theory of Mr.
M'Culloch may suggest to the contrary, the dis-
advantage to Ireland of an absentee aristocracy
is,too apparent to be doubted. A similar evil
will, in a great degree, 4e experienced here,
should the circumstances we allude to continue
to exist, and to extend themselves. We fear
that. the immorality of the country is already
greater than that of the metropolis, and it is not
likely to, be otherwise while cold reserve and
selfishness are permitted to take the place of
those habits of condescension and kindness
which used to distinguish the English Country
Gentleman from the corresponding. character
every where else.