The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-21 00:00:00

THE CHOLERA.

MANSION HOUSE RELIEF COMMITTEE.

Yesterday Messrs. Warre Brothers, of Fenchurch-
street, merchants, presented through Messrs. Lub-
bock, and Co., bankers, the munificent sum of
£5OO to the Cholera Relief Fund now being raised
at the Mansion-house. Last evening the fund had
risen from £11,600 odd on Saturday to upwards of
£13,000, the sum received yesterday and at the va-
rious bankers being upwards of £l,OOO.
A: meeting of the working committee was held
yesterday at the Mansion-house, the Lord Mayor
presiding, and there being also present Sir Mor-
daunt Wells, Mr. Tite, M.P., Mr. Samuel Hoare,
Mr. R. N. Fowler, Mr. W. J. Maxwell, the Rev.
William Rogers, the Rev. F. G. Blomfield, Mr. R.
B. Wade, Mr. Andrew Johnston, Dr. Andrew
Clark, Physician to the London Hospital ; Mr. R.
Wigram, Mr. H. W. Ripley, and Mr. Needham.
A letter addressed to the Lord Mayor by Mrs.
Gladstone, under date of the 17th inst., was read.
The writer stated that having seen with great plea-
sure and interest the leading part he had been
taking in the present emergency, and how heartily
the public had supported him, she ventured to plead
in behalf of the free orphanage to be permanently
established. He must, she said, be well aware of
the permanent cases where children had been de-
prived of both parents, and who, as far as could be
ascertained, had no means of support from relatives
or friends. These children belonged to very poor
districts, and to throw them upon the parish would
be to impose a burden upon those who could ill
sustain it. In other instances of total neglect she
need hardly dwell upon the future. She perceived,
she said, that the Lord Mayor had received certain
funds for the foundation of a home or orphanage,
and she ventured to reiterate her opinion, already
expressed in her letter to The A,ztiz, that it would be
wise to concentrate these funds, with the view to
the establishment of "one free orphanage." Upon
these grounds she hoped she might solicit his advo-
cacy and interest.

The communication of Mrs. Gladstone gave rise to
a somewhat animated conversation in the com-
mittee, which was conducted with every mark of
consideration and respect for the writer. Mr. Max-
well observed that he himself was a member of the
managing committees of two orphan asylums—one
at 11am, the other at Tottenham, and in both they
could admit 100 more children if they had the
means. There were many other similar institutions
of which the same might be said, and which, he be-
lieved were languishing for want of funds. He
agreed with the Times that to increase the existing
asylums, with many of which it was a struggle to
keep their heads above water, would be a great mis-
take, and if Mrs. Gladstone could see the propriety
of giving the money she had been instrumental in
collecting to the existing asylums, instead of adding
another to the number, he believed room would be
found in them for all the children who had been left
homeless during the present visitation. He had a
great deal to do with charities, and he thought a
great mistake had been committed in increasing
their number. Sir Mordaunt Wells thought the
time had come when they ought fairly to look at the
question of securing the orphans from want. The
miserable condition of numbers of children thrown
on the world by the death of parents had been
amply disclosed to them during the last few days,
but he did not think it came within the legitimate
action of that committee to lend themselves to the
erection of an orphan asylum, which might take
three or four years in building. Immediate action
in the interest of the poor sufferers was wanted on
their part, and they ought rather to place themselves
in communication with the existing asylums, and
see what accommodation could be afforded for the
unhappy children. Mr. Wigram, speaking of Pop-
lar, with which he is connected, and up to within
the last few days as many as 150 children had been
made orphans by the visitation, and probably the
number was now over 200. The Rev. Mr. Blom-
field said he assumed the committee did not intend
to subsidise existing institutions, but simply to
contribute towards placing individual orphans
in them. £lO,OOO spent in bricks and mortar,
to say nothing of the cost of management of a
new asylum, would maintain more than 100
orphans at the existing institutions, and recourse
could be had to them without any delay. Mr. Tite
said Mrs. Gladstone was too wise to think of spend-
' ing £lO,OOO for such a purpose. The Rev. William
Rogers, with all due sympathy with the orphans,
apprehended the committee might seriously inter-
fere with parochial action in this matter. It was a
false notion he said that pauper children were not
brought up well. The district schools around Lon-
don were among the very best, and it was almost a
fortune for a poor orphan child to get into any one
of them. It was at least premature for the com-
mittee to entertain the question. It was true there
was for the time a lull in the epidemic, but they
could not say what turn it might yet take. On the
last visitation the disease was most severe in Octo-
ber, and it became them, while ministering to the
present necessities, to husband their funds.

Eventually the committee passed a resolution to
the effect that having had under consideration an
application from Mrs. Gladstone to subscribe to an
orphanage to be raised under her auspices, they re-
gretted that, while they could not but sympathise
with her benevolent motives, they did not feel
justified at this moment in making any contribution
from the funds placed by the public at their dis-
posal.

The Rev. F. G. BLOMFIELD adverted to a letter
addressed to the editor of the Times by the Rev. G.
H. M'Gill, incumbent of Christ Church, St.
tGahreepoerLagl
Lord
rstd-oi ni‘t-in-the al
iwset
h,
benevolence
;which the
nheavdol deprecatedenc
e
itnh charged
individual
sion-house Committee and the Bishop of London
had ample funds at their disposal, with casting a
" slur upon men who, relying solely on God's pro-
tection, are standing in the front ranks of the conflict
and grappling day by day, and hour by hour, with
the deadly foe." He (Mr. Blomfield) was
qauiy; e
such
the Lord Mayor had never meant to cast n
" slur" as had been imputed to him. On the con-
trary, the Lord Mayor and the rest of the committee
heartily sympathised with individual clergymen and
others in their self-denying labours in the emer-
gency ; but the error into which Mr. M‘Gill had
fallen was in stating that the Lord Mayor objected
to any individual appeals to the public benevolence
being made before the Bishop of London's fund and
that of the Mansion-house had been set on foot.
What the Lord Mayor really said, and what he was
correctly reported to have said, was in effect that he
objected to such individual appeals being made now
that ample funds had been raised at the Mansion-house
and by the Bishop of London. Mr. M'Gill, therefore,
had certainly made a very unfair use of the Lord
Mayor's observations. He (Mr. Blomfield) regretted
to see that Mr. John Young, jun., the treasurer of
the Tower-hill District Cholera Fund, after receiv-
ing two separate grants from the Altmfdou-house