The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONOAV EVENING, APRIL 16, 1866.

octc)r who has to inspect three or four hundred

patie; ats in three or four hours and afterwards make
up their medicines as best he can. Unfortunately

there is no room for believing such statements to
be even maggerated: The testimony of indepen-
dent medical witnesses, who are certainly' not gene-

rally deficient in shrewdness or perception, is
indignantly unanimous. Dr. ANSTIE was one of
the commissioners appointed by the proprietors of
the Lancet to examine into the state of all the

metropolitan impurities. Dr. ANSTIE Confesses that
he had no strong impressions on the matter when

he undertook the duty, and though, in common
with others, he believed that there ;vas some over-

crowding and insufficient nursing and attendance,
his opinion of such wards as he had seen was on the
whole favourable. The honest indignation which

breathes all through Dn. ANSTIE'S statement suffi-
ciently shows how completely his views have been
changed, and the facts he refers to are certainly
enough, as he says, "to rouse andpainfully shock the
national conscience."
At Lambeth a single medical officer has under his
care 700 persons invalided. One-half this number
are seriously ill, and 70 are lunatics. -Eh is non-
resident, and there is no one at hand to attend
to any emergency. What would be thought of an
hospital so peopled without a resident house sur-
geon? At St. Pancras there are 250 acutely sick,
there are more than 100 lunatics, many of them
very troublesome, and the infirm and chronic cases
make up the total requiring medical attendance to
more than 1,000. To attend to this vast army of
sufferers there are two resident medical officers,
who receive respectively £l6O and £B5, and who
have to make up all medicines required between the
hours of 4 p.m. and 9.30 a.m. In another work-
house the surgeon has 250 acutely sick under his
care, and has also to dispense all the medicines ;
for which duties he is paid at the rate of less than

half-a-crown a day. He confessed that the per-
formance of his duties was merely nominal, that he
never used the stethoscope for fear of losing time ;
that the medicine he gave was regulated more with
regard to the facility of dispensing it than to the
cure of the patients. At Slioreditch, again, the
surgeon has to attend to 400 sick, infirm,
and insane, and to dispense all their drugs.
He gives three hours a day to visiting these
400 (a very simple calculation will show the num-
ber of minutes to each), and then repairs to his
dispensary to make up their drugs from memory !
Yet, what can he do ? He must attend to his pri-

vate practice or starve on his salary.
" There is not a single London infirmary, " says
Dr. ANSTIE, " in which the medical attendance" is
not utterly insufficient. But this is not the worst.
" The unfortunate sick paupers are entirely in the
hands of pauper nurses, always ignorant and
clumsy, often drunken and cruel." The Guardians
are yearly elected in the poorer parishes from a

lower and a lower class, " whose existence is
passed in a fierce struggle to squeeze
a profit out of their artisan tenants which may neu-
tralise the burden of the constantly increasing '
rates." No wonder that they should loss all feel-
ing for the terrible sufferings which sickness and
accident entail on the labouring poor. " Their
education is too low to enable them to see the truly
economic, value of a judicious liberality in such mat-
ters as the treatment of a temporarily disabled
bread-winner or mother of a family." All these
great evils, Dr. ANSTIE thinks, must be treated on
a uniform plan, and the necessity of dealing with
them promptly and efficiently was strongly
impressed upon the head of the Poor-law Board by
a large and influential deputation on Saturday after-
noon. It will be remembered that a numerous
meeting was held at Willis's Rooms a few weeks
ago, and the terms of one of the resolutions were
repeated to Mr. VILLIZILS by Lord CARNARVON.
After reading the facts quoted above, few, we think,
will be disposed to dispute the truth of the assertion,
" That the present management of the sick poor in
the metropolitan workhouses is highly unsatisfac-
tory; that the buildings are inadequate and un-
healthy, the medical attendance insufficient,
the nursing merely nominal, and the gene-
ral administration radically defective." These
statements were fully borne out by several
gentlemen present—among them Dr. ROGERS, ten
years medical officer of one of our largest unions.
They were enforced by a number of influential per-
sons, au:l were received by Mr. VILLIERS with
every mark of attention. The cure proposed for
these monster evils is the total separation of the
sick poor from the able-bodied. It is recommended
'that six consolidated infirmaries should be erected
under proper regulations ; that paid nurses should
be appointed, one day nurse, one night nurse,
and one assistant to every fifty patients. That
there should be one resident medical officer for
every two hundred and fifty patients. That the
patients should be classified, and 1,00 cubic feet
of air allowed for each. That the doctors should
have no interest in the medicines, nor should
they dispense them.- Mr. VILLIERS received these
suggestions very favourably, and said he hoped
the House of Commons would be prevailed upon
to have a general rate for the sick poor instead
of the present system.
We can hardly doubt that some- such reform
will promptly be set on foot, for our Parliament
will surely not be induced to give its sanction,
directly or indirectly, to so cruel, extravagant,
and disastrous a system as the present.

Me Hospital of St. John and St. Elizabeth

in Crmond-street.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN

Sin,—l beg your indulgence to enable me to give
an immediate answer to an article in the Weekly

Register of last Saturday, regarding the Hospital of
St. John and St. Elizabeth, in Great Ormond-

street.

--- ---.
Many of your readers are aware that the com-
mittee of that charity have asserted what they con-
sider to be their rights by closing the Hospital. I
have strongly remonstrated against this cruel and
mischievous measure, by letters published in the
P►egister and Tablet.
In the last number of the Weekly Register there
is an article containing two remarkable assertions.
One is that there is no difference on the subject of
the hospital between the views of Dr. Manning and
those of . Cardinal Wiseman ; and the other is that
if the matter had been placed unreservedly in the
hands of Archbishop Manning a way would have
been found to compose the unfortunate differences
which have led to the closing of the hospital.
To the first of these assertions I give the most

unqualified denial. It suffices to say that no one '
who is acquainted with the views of the Cardinal
can possibly believe that he would have allowed the
hospital to close, or that he would have permitted
the committee to close it. Still less would he have
allowed the committee to close the hospital for
the purpose of excluding the sisters who for nine
years have served it (after serving in the Criinea
with Miss Nightingale), and so asserting their
ownAs uf no undividede
caotnitdh or ity.
assertion,
which refers to me, I
can only say that I did declare myself -willing to
place the matter unreservedly in the hands of the
Archbishop, so far as I was myself concerned. But,
I was called upon to consent to the removal of the
Crimean Sisters from the Convent -which I have
built for them, and the transfer of the Convent to
French Nuns. This I could not honourably consent
to, because that removal would be an act of spolia-
tion'contrary to justice, and contrary to the law of the
land. I beg you to publish this letter.—Your
obedient servant,
Temple, 15th April, 1865.

GEORGE BOWYER

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.

Madlle. Titiens in " Der Freischutz."
On Saturday night Mademoiselle Titiens returned
to the scene of all her former triumphs, here in
England, we are almost tempted to say, in finer
voice than ever, certainly in the very fullness of
her superb powers as prima donna. The double
attraction of Madlle. Titiens' returning to the stage
for the first night this season on Saturday, and of
her thirs returning amongst us, moreover, in no less
attractive A character than that of the heroine in
IVeber's always-attractive opera, Der Freischiitz,
otherwise in its Italianised form, II Franco Arciero—
filled the magnificent area of ller Majesty's—boxes,
stalls, pit, slips, gallery, to overflowing. And, be-
yondtofropi
nitni
olgp
gl doubt
rtdorat o r
\hlreb aecl isset,
attendance.,
tovhfi
et
Ah one o t
ahsuead whole,
two
hcoe comparatively
performance,
el,v
etrhee, opera,
eefrom
rma,a,
rewarded
the
e cal
work of art, has seldom been witnessed to greater
advantage. One serious deficiency there was, how-
ever, which, once or twice, during the night became
rather disappointingly apparent, namely the
hoarseness constraining the young tenor Signor
Stagno, to skip the subtler beauties of the music set
down for Rodolpho--nevertheless, passages fami-
liar, and many of them exquisite passages, that we
were eagerly prepared rather to have thus
missed than to run the hazard of having
murdered. Signor Mongini, by the way, was origi-
nally announced in the prospectus, as the Rodolpho
this season, yet
night, again,
i h tof
as
1866 last t
her year,
Majesty's
part
tys h
has been awarded to Signor Stagno—the Man-
rico on the opening g
in Verdi's Trovatore. But for his unlucky huski-
ness on Saturday, we should have had no reason
whatever of any kind for regret in regard to the
entire of that evening's performance of Der
Freischiitz. The cast, in point of fact, was, with
one single exception (which was, as it happened,
a very noticeable . improvement), identically the
same as the cast of last year. The solitary-change
of parts referred to, being the selection of
Signor Gassier for the impersonation of
Kilian during the absence of Signor Mongini.
A substitution that in the opening scenes proved to
be most satisfactory—more particularly in the
merry consequential solo of the peasant marksman,
G uarda a me qual vincitore? with the choral taunt
Eh, eh, eh, eh ! to the vanquished huntsman of the
chief Ranger. As for the three other principal
characters in Der Freischiitz--as that weird and
haunting masterpiece of poor Carl Maria Von
Weber is now put upon the stage at Her Majesty's—
nothing, absolutely nothing, assuredly could be re-
garded as in any way wanting to ensure the fullest
justice being done to all the labyrinthine intricacies
of "linked sweetness," constituting the glory of the
score of Der Frieschiitz. A more triumphant suc-
cess than that achieved by Madlle Titiuns as the
Ranger Kuno's Daughter Agatha, who could wish
to see or hearken to? Above all, in the grand scena
of act two inaugurated by the tender reci-
tative Come una volts us sonno, followed
by her dulciphulous warbling (with clasped hands
at the balcony) Piano, plaid), canto pio, followed—
after her eager delivery of the Tutto in moto
a it
sangue mia—crowned, perfected we should say far
rather, by her impassioned interview with Rodolpho,
whom she vainly strives to dissuade from carrying
out his design of fulfilling his promise to meet
Caspar by moonlight in the Wolf's Glen, there to
participate with him in the devillish incantations!
Most beautiful of all, however, was Mdlle. Titiens'
rendering of Agatha's lovely romance in E flat at
the very commencement of the final act of this lyric
drama of Der Freischiitz " E se la nube anco it nas-
conde"—the last cadence of which was rewarded by
a shower of bouquets (and one overlooked garland)
—as the grand scena in its turn, earlier in the even-
ing had been followed at its close by a storm of
bouquets so plentifully scattered upon the stage at
the feet of the Great Songstress that one might have
fancied for the momentthat tilt season was not that
of Easter hut that of Midsummer. As the cast
of " Der Freischiitz" at her Majesty's is thus mania
festly strong in the Agatha of Titiens, it is, we may go
so far as to add, just perfected by the Annetta of
Madlle. Sink°, and by the Caspar of Mr. Santley.
The vivacity, the esprit, the espieglerie, the charming
grace and pretty sprightliness of Madlle. Sinico's
Annetta leave nothing to be wished—either in the
second act, in the
" Vien un giovin di bel taglie,
Con i ricci biondi oneri ?"
or in the last act when she sings her dream-song—
" Nonna mia sogno una sera
Che l'uscio aprivasi da se."
A piece of vocalisation so charming that it
was only not redemanded at the close of
prolonged applause out of consideration for the late-
ness of the hour. As for Mr. Santley's Caspar, it.
was pronounced by all who heard it last season as
beyond all doubt the very finest Caspar anywhere
discoverable—an estimate confirmed in that densely
crowded house on Saturday—by acclamation !
Never has this accomplished singer poured forth the
magnificent resources at once of his art and of his
organ, of his noble voice and of his skill in manag-
ing it—never has he accomplished this with more
verve, passion, enthusiasm, than he did on Saturday
—now, more especially, in the drinking song, the
irresistible drinking-dancing song—
" Quaggiu in questa val di pens
Non sariavi un solo bene •
Senza Bacco it suo liquor :"
now, in the impassioned aria at the close of that
very same scene and act, " Taci taci, onde
niuno t'avreta ! " ending with the clarion
like cry of exultation " Oh! trionfo vendetta otterro
si !" soaring above the harmonious tumult of the
accompaniment. As the phrase is, it brought the
house down, as the act drop descended. Every-
thing that could be accomplished by the most
lavish regard being paid at every turn to
all the various stage appliances in putting this
wonderful opera of Weber's once more upon the
boards at her Majesty's has been done, as
everyone will remember who witnessed it dur-
ing the summer of last season. Insomuch
is this the case, that the old-fashioned stage
directions still retained in the libretto in act the
third, the whole scene of which is that goblin, ghastly,
ghostly, grimly scene of the speetral illusions wit-
nessed, nay, for that matter, invoked by Caspar
and Rudolph° in the Wolf's Glen at midnight, by
moonlight, and, at the close, alternately in utter
darkness and blood-red flashes of a lurid light
as if from hell—reads now-a-days very much
indeed like an anachronism ! Added to the birds
of night, the demons, the phantom horsemen, and
the ghostly apparitions, there come swarming upon
the stage gigantic serpents, skeletons, and devils,
green-limbed, and scarlet-eyed, and in every con-
ceivable respect detestable to look upon, abhor-
rent to the very imagination when remembered—such
as Weber in his wildest musings over the score of
this his last and greatest opera, never by any chance
we may be certain could have even dreamt of !
The Oveiture—before the rising of the cur-
tain could be tolerated by the audience—was
encored with a burst of enthusiasm. Not so—
rather to our surprise—the famous hunting chorus,
in the fourth scene of the fourth act, where Prince
Ottocar for the first time makes his appearance.
Both Chorus and Orchestra, under the skilled conduct
of SignOr Arditi's baton of magic, it should be
said, acquitted themselves throughout the night to
admiration.

Among the noble and distinguished persons,
honouring Her Majesty's. Theatre with their pre-
sence during the past week were the following :
Their Giace's the Duke and Duchess of Wellington,
the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle, and Lady
Susan Vane, the Duchess of Cleveland, his Excel-
lency the French Ambassador, the Prince de la
Tour d'Auvergne, the Marquis of Clanricarde, the
Baron.de Bande, the Marchioness of Downshire, the
Earl and Countess Dudley, Maria Countess of Har-
rington, the Baroness Ferdinand De Rothschild, the
Marquis of Sligo, the Countess of 'Wilton, the Earl
and Countess Mountcharles, the Earl of Caithness,
the Earl and Countess De Grey, the Marquis of
Blandford, the Earl of Ellenborough, the Earl and
Countess Cowpeyr,istehoe:tearsl6 oDfillColntinnitheel,
ythisecoEunartl
Bective, the Viscount and Viscountess Exmouth, the
Viscount Parker, the Viscount and Viscountess
Amberley, the

Newport, the Hon. George Barrington, the Coun-
tess of Sefton, and the Ladies of Sefton, the Hon.
Spencer Ponsonby and Mrs. Ponsonby, the
Honourable Otway Toler, Lady Willoughby de
Broke, Lord Arthur Hill, Lady Charlotte
Schruber, Lady Townsend, Lady Johnson,
Sir Ivor Bertie Guest, Bart., and Lady Guest, Lady
Gore Langton, General Sir George Bowles, K.C.8.,
the Hon. Mrs. Gore Langton, Lady Smith, Mr.
Alderman Salomons, the Baroness- Hambro, Sir
Ralph Howard, Bart., M.P., Lady Howard and
party, Lady Annesley, Lady Hervey, Lady Sarah
Lindsay, Lord llillsborough, Sir Frederick Rowe,.
Mrs. Holford, Colonel Marshall, Mr. Montague
Guest, Mr. Forbes Campbell, Lady Stracey, Mr. T.
Urelli, Mr. L. Brooke, Mr. C. Cavendish, Mr.
Saunders, Mr. Waring, Mr. Baring, Mr. F. Cooper,
the Hon. Mr. Dudley Ward, Mr. A. Montgomery,
Captain Brereton Trelawney, Mr. B. Trelawpey,
Mr. and Mrs. Currie, Captain Bligh, Colonel Fraser,
Captain Keith Fraser, Mrs. Ricardo, Mrs. Gardner,
the Viscount Exmouth, the Hon. T. Calthorpe, Mr.
Petrie, Colonel Tyrrwhitt; Major Lyon, Mr. Watte,
&c., &c.