The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-31 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, JAN. 31, 1868.

While on every hand we hear lamentations over
exhausted treasuries and appeals for aid from the
managers of charitable associations, it is refreshing
to find a committee of philanthropic gentlemen dis-
cussing what to do with their surplus funds. Yet
such is the case at Manchester, where the Central
Executive Committee, formed during the distress
arising from the Cotton Famine, are puzzled how
to dispose of a balance of more than a hundred
thousand pounds ! At a meeting lately held under
the presidency of Lord DERBY, Mr. MACLURE, the
indefatigable and efficient secretary, reported that
the treasurers of the two separate funds subscribed
for the relief of the distress had in hand respectively
balances of £63,771 and £41,760. Various sug-
gestions have, of course, been made as to the dis-
posal of these funds, though of course they could
not be diverted from their original purpose without
the sanction of the Court of Chancery. Some
persons proposed that they should be applied to
the relief of the distressed freedmen in the cotton
growing districts of America, though, as we were
told at the time, that the whole civil war in the
States was carried on for the benefit of the blacks,
it would be somewhat inconsistent. The negroes,
unhappily, have suffered heavily from the rashness
and recklessness of their professed friends, and all
Englishmen, whatever their opinions, would rejoice
to see them more fortunately situated, and relieved
from their pressing necessities. At the same time,
as the donors of the fund had no intention of as-
sisting any but their own countrymen, and as the
negroes have no direct connection with Lancashire
or Cheshire, there is no valid reason for sending
funds across the Atlantic while they are urgently
needed at home. There is certainly no lack
of distress among ourselves that we need look
for it in another country ; but, however
pressing may be the various claims upon the notice
of the committee,lit seems most just and reasonable,
and most in accordance with the original inten-
tions of the donors, to spend the money in the ma-
nufacturing districts themselves. Among a dense
population, numbered by hundreds of thousands,
whose lives are devoted to exhausting and unre-
mitting toil, we need not seek for cases of sickness,
poverty, lingering disease, premature old age, and
misery iu every form. The trade of the factory
operatives is a remunerative one, employment is in
ordinary times ready, and persons of all ages find
something to turn their hands to. But it bears
the penalty which in some form or other attaches
to every profitable :occupation ; men and women
wear out fast and die early, leaving orphans
behind them. They are liable to accidents
of many kinds, which often cripple the
industrious and energetic worker. Their ware
rooms are close and unhealthy, and the cities in
which they live show for the most part a terribly
high death rate. Under these circumstances, the
general feeling of the committee was in favour of
the establishment of convalescent hospitals for the
benefit of the manufacturing districts, and iu this
decision they will probably be supported by the
public. Lord DERBY, no slight authority, in ad-
verting to these various schemes, remarked that this
plan of the convalescent hospitals was more nearly
in accordance with the original intentions of the
subscribers than any other. The hospitals would
be designed for the reception of patients after par-
tial recovery from those accidents and complaints