The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-17 00:00:00

RAILWAYS.
Cash.

Orleans
Northern
Lyons and Mediterranean
Southern
Western
Eastern
Sardinian .
Austrian
Lombard
North of Spain
Saragossa
Ditto to Barcelona
Roman

THE METROPOLITAN FREE HOSPITAL.—Among
the numerous charitable institutions existing in
this great metropolis, most of which mainly owe their
existence and maintenance to a benevolent public, one can
scarcely be surprised at the frequent complaint which
which occurs of want of funds. And yet the benevolence
and liberality of the wealthier classes in this country are
the noblest features in the character of the nation. Eng-
lishmen of wealth and Englishmen of moderate means
seem to unite in one common cause, by means of various
channels, to assist the poor, to train the orphan, to relieve
the sick, to succour the aged, to house the incurable, and
to soothe the dying. Our charity is a paftern to the world,
andyet the vast sums resulting from our benevolence are,
it seems, miserably inadequate to the demands upcn the
charities we support. We suspect strongly that one of two
states of things, or somewhat of each, must be at the
bottom of this difficulty. Either wealthy donors and
patrons are influenced by connections and sympathies to
one charity, or one description of charity, to the neglect of
perhaps many more valuable ones, or, despite our na-
tional liberality, there are thousands of well-to-do folks
who
will look on calmly at sickness and destitution rather than
disturb the balance at their bankers. There are, however,
institutions which only require to be known to claim the
sympathy of the truly benevolent, and such an one is the
Metropolitan Free Hospital, Devonshire-square, City, the
anniversary festival of which is to take place on the 14th
March. The Metropolitan Free Hospital is unlike its
kindred institutions in many respects. Unlike the older
hospitals it possesses no endowment ; unlike them it is en-
tirely dependent upon public generosity for its support ;
unlike them it opens its doors to all creeds and all nations
without a patron's recommendatory letter—ill-health and
indigence being alone necessary to secure immediate ad-
mission or out-door relief. This feature, for a twofold
reason, should recommend the Metropolitan Free Hospital
to the sympathies of the benevolent, to comparatively few
of whom it is at present known owing to its situation,
which, although an excellent one for its eleemosynary
objects, and being besides in the heart of the City, is so
retired as to meet the view or scarcely one in twenty thou-
sand of the travellers in the metropolis. The one reason is
that its promptness of action in many instances relieves
a patient, and perhaps saves his life, where a very different
result might be obtained if he applied for and failed to ob-
tain a letter, or experienced delay in obtaining one; and
the other reason is that, by treating a patient in incipient
maladies, the medical officers are enabled to battle with
and overcome much direful disease, which, although its
origin may be traced to the overcrowded dwellings of the
poor, is not long, if suffered to develope, in bringing the
inmate of the mansion to a bed of suffering or death. The
Right Hon. the Lord Mayor will occupy the chair at the
anniversary festival, supported by the Sheriffs of London
and Middlesex, and the name of his Grace the Archbishop
of Canterbury heads an influential list of stewards. We
most cordially hope that, on the occasion of the gathering
at the London Tavern on Wednesday, the 14th March, such
assistance may be accorded to the funds of the Metropoli-
tan Free Hospital as may enable it to carry on and extend
its praiseworthy operations.

THE POET SOUTHEY.—He was the very beau ideal
of a poet, singularly impressive, tall, somewhat
slight, slow in his movements, and very dignified in man-
ner, with the eye of a hawk, and with sharp features and
an aquiline nose, that carried the similitude somewhat
farther. His forehead was broad and high, his eyebrows
dark, his hair profuse and long, rapidly approaching white.
I can see vividly, even now, his graceful and winning
smile. To the commonest observer he was obviously a man
who had lived more with books than men, whose converse
had chiefly been with " the mighty minds of old," whose
"days," whose "thoughts," whose "hopes" were, as he
tells us they were, "with the dead !" In the few and brief
conversations I hadwith him he impressed me—as indeed
he did every person who was, even for an hour, his com-
panion?—with the conviction that he elevated the profes-
sion of letters not only by knowledge acquired and distri-
buted, net alone by the wisdom of his career and the in-
tegrity of his life, but by manners unassuming and unex-
acting, and by a condescending gentleness of demeanour
that, if not humility in the common sense of the term,
arose out of generous consideration and large charity.--
Mr. and Mrs. C. .Liald in the Art-Journal.