The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-14 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1870.

SEVERAL movements are happily long since afoot
here in England, and flourishing, for the relief of
the sick anwd ounded among the belligerents. There
is the German Association ; there is the French
Association ; and overshadowing both of those put
together, there is the great National Association for
the relief of both French and Germans indiscrimi-
nately. The latter, when the war at length shall be
over, and shall have become a thing of the past, will
deserve, and will doubtless have a history of its
own. It will serve to shew by imperishable
data, to demonstrate with the inexorable logic of

facts, that if England was neutral, she was at the
same time overflowingly, practically, sympathetic !
Collecting funds with magic rapidity, drawing into
the coffers of this national association in doles vary-
ing in extent from a widow's mite to a cool thousand,
gold, silver, bronze, bank notes, and cheques, moneys

that very soon—within an interval of a very few
w eeks—told up to an aggregate lump-sum
of a quarter of a million sterling. It is
not, however, by any means the most remarkable
thing about this noble fund that it has sprung up,
and flourished, and mounted, as one may say, heaven-
ward in a nig time, the stormy night time of this
terrible war, like the fairy beanstalk. It is far more
deserving of remembrance, and entitled to admiration

for inasmuch as it has no sooner begun pouring in
than it has been generously and continuously dispensed.
The administration of the fund throughout from the
very origin of the movement, and uninterruptedly since
then, has reflected the highest honour upon its
promoters and organisers. There has never been
stinting, delaying, or hoarding. In proportion as the
subscriptions have poured in, the benefactions in kind,
beds and bedding, lint and ointments, medicines and
nourishment, anodynes and anaesthetics, all the
humane appliances of modern surgery, all the healing
drugs of the perpetually expanding circle of the
pharmacopcea have poured out, here and there all over
the Seat of War from the stores of the association,
forwarded hither and thither to the peripatetic
ambulances. Lavishly but wisely the resources
placed at the command of the National Association
have been put within reach of the Franco-German
sufferers. The sleepless vigilance and untiring
assiduity of those upon whom have more especially
devolved the responsibility of keeping in incessant
movement the incomings and the outgoings of the
suddenly improvised association, are worthy of all
praise. Of themselves that vigilance and that assiduity
are magnificent works of mercy on the part of all
concerned in them. The recipients of the good offices
of the association, it should be particularly borne in
mind, have been numbering up during this frightful
conflict with such appalling swiftness—tens of thou-
sands being placed hors de combat again and again
between sunrise and sundown. More than

that, they hive had to be followed up Vas
the campaign advanced ; they have had to be
sought out on the different battlefields; they have
had to be carried to the rear, there to be tended; or
sometimes have had even to be cared for, there and
then, upon the very spot upon which they have
fallen. The surgeon wearing the white baud with

the glorious badge of the red cross on his arm, the
priest administering consolatipn to the dying,
the sister of charity comforting those

more or less seriously wounded, each in
turn has come within range of the needle-gun and
the chassepot, some amongst them even have paid
the penalty of their humane rashness with their lives
—lives thus nobly spent in behalf of their fellow-
creatures. Never has there been more wholesale
destruction in battle than during this war of
1870—never has there been such hideous muti-
lation than that caused by the gatling-gun
and the mitrailleuse. But mercifully also when
we have said thus much, we can add quite as con-
fidently—never has been larger charity more wisely,
promptly, persistently dispensed among the patriotic,
and therefore guiltless, sufferers. And mainly this
is owing—it is impossible not to recognise the fact,
and recognising it, not to insist upon it—mainly
this is owing to the beneficent agency of the Na-
tional Association for the Relief of the Sick and
Wounded,

TOPICS OF THE DAY.