The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 6, 1866

exists for some relief. There are two very impor-
tant points which remain to be considered now that
the decrease in the epidemic has given the commit-
tees time for consideration, and the opportunity for
something more than meeting the claims of the day.
The questions were both of them of considerable
difficulty, though of great importance. They were
the measures to be adopted for the relief of the con-
valescents and the orphans, both classes now grow-
ing very numerous, and standing greatly in need
of help. With regard to those recovering from an
attack of the prevailing sickness it is manifest that
their case is often one of great hardship, as they
may be sufficiently restored to leave hospital or in-
firmary long before they are able to stand the con-
tinued exertion demanded from those who have to
work for their living, and still more for the support
of their families. At the same time it is necessary
to exercise some discretion in affording them relief,
since the committee feel bound to take care that the
liberality of the public is not directed to the increase
of pauperism. The truest charity is to help people
to help themselves; and by assisting the recovery of
the really deserving poor many families may be
kept off the rates altogether, who would otherwise
be driven to the parish for relief. The Mansion
House Committee, after considering the matter, re-
solved to set apart the sum of £2,000 for the express
benefit of convalescents, and invited the attendance
and co-operation of the chairmen of the local com-
mittees at a discussion of the details. The meeting
was largely attended by representatives of the
local committees in the eastern districts, and from
the Northern, German, and Metropolitan Free
Hospitals. The Lord Mayor, in opening the pro-
ceedings, said that the disease having now materi-
ally subsided, the case of the convalescents pressed
for immediate action, ani that the committee
wanted to know from the local authorities the num-
ber of persons in their various localities coming
within that category. It has been suggested that
convalescent hospitals should be erected ; but, how-
ever useful such institutions might be in themselves,
they would not be adapted to the present emergency,
in which time is everything. It was finally resolved
to make liberal grants to the various local com-
mittees for the express purpose of relieving conva-
lescents, leaving in every instance the money to be
applied at the discretion of the committees, who are
composed of the principal inhabitants of the infected
districts, and include members of all denominations.
The sums for this purpose yesterday amounted to
more than £1,200, and before the meeting broke up
the Lord Mayor said that they proposed to hold
another conference at an early day for the conside-
ration of the provision for the orphans. They had,
he said, only one object in view, to do the greatest
possible good with the money entrusted to their
care, and to do it promptly. This is the right spirit
to act in, and it is this energy, straightforwardness,
I and impartiality of their dealings that have made
the efforts of the Mansion-House Committee so
successful.

The case of the orphans is one that especially
demands thoughtful care. On the one hand, it is
not desirable to encourage dependence, or to relieve
the parish of its obligations ; but, on the other,
it is a manifest hardship to allow the
children of respectable, hard-working mechanics
and artisans to be brought up as paupers. In
spite of all theories every one who has any expe-
rience of the matter knows the difficulties which
beset the workhouse lad or girl on leaving school,
while every objection which is urged against the
effect of orphanageg in unfitting the children for
contact with the world can be applied with equal
force against workhouses. The self-respect and in-
dependence of the better classes of the English poor
are admirable qualities, and many a working man
or woman of Mile-end or Spitalfields would be as
much shocked at the notion of their children
being brought up as paupers as those many
degrees above them in the social scale. It seems,
therefore, to be a case in which private benevolence
may well step forward when the children of such
parents are suddenly thrown upon the world by the
visitation of an epidemic whose virulence in these
poorer districts we must remember has been greatly
due to the public neglect. We are very glad to
find that' the Lord Mayor's Committee and the
Bishop of London's Committee have resolved upon
apportioning a good sum to some provision for the
orphans. Dr. CLARK, physician to the London Hos-
pital, an indefatigable member of the Mansion-house
Committtee, bore testimony to the great service
which Mrs. GLADSTONE had clone in relieving the
hospital of the charge of 28 convalescent children,
who had no homes to go to and no clothes to put on.
This benevolent lady has taken a temporary house
at Brighton, which must indeed be a marvellous
change to the poor little sufferers. Everything that
can be done for the relief and assistance of the
'terrible distress which the cholera has left behind
it, like the swell after a storm, is being done, and
too much praise cannot he given to those
gentlemen who have given their time, their
thought, and their personal service to the cause.
They have the satisfaction: of seeing the good their
efforts have done, even though that satisfaction is
marred by the vast extent of the disasters which
they daily witness. It is not too much to expect that
those who from various causes are unable to give
person assistance will continue to strengthen the
hands of those who are doing battle with pestilence
and famine by liberal pecuniary aid.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AUSTRIA.

VIENNA, Sept. 6.

Major-General von Moring has left for Venice,
to carry out the transfer of Venetia to General
Lebceuf.

The Austrian Gazette says that the negoeiations for

the solution of the Austrian constitutional question
have hitherto been conducted in reference to mate-
rial changes only. The question of the per-
sons to be entrusted by the Emperor with
carrying these changes into effect has not yet been
discussed. When, therefore, the newspapers speak
of personal changes as impending or already elitected,
these statements are simply based upon unfounded

conjecture.
The Note Frondenblatt asserts that a meeting of
the leading members of the German party in Austria
will take place shortly to discuss a plan for the future
constitutional organisation of the Empire.
The same paper adds that the principle which
will be adopted by that party will be that of per-
sonal union between Austria and Hungary.

A MERJCA.
ARRIVAL OF THE BREMEN.

SOUTHAMPTON, Sept. 6.

The North German Lloyd steamer Bremen, from
New York on the 25th ult., has arrived with' 57
sacks of mails, 69 passengers for this port, Havre,
and Bremen, and 257 bars of silver for London,
value $483,162.
On the Ist inst. she passed the British ship
James and Ellen, bound west, and the American
ship Cultivator, bound east.