Star.
London, England, 1808-12-28 00:00:00

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I rate zeal. to such an Unhappy length has • Entr
the rage • - . .
y Mari of ranic vets, accerdingle, *pointed alsont
lof desolation of General Hospitals been carried in • the ytke ei9s, 1 is country, that even Portsmouth is left without an I. eseunalmy,
t ih• to superintend tneir discipline and ,
having under him local military aPerin-
:l tiylum.for sick and wounded soldiers. The Depot tendants, resident at every such establishment, and
Hospital at the Isle of Wight is the only refuge that
vested with the requisite powers and insttuctions to
Can now be depended on for the reception of the sick .
corrott'ostesi. sible abuses, preserve discipline, ant to
of regiments embarked, or disembarking at that
pesvent, gloat military rendeevous of expeditions; and pitiable , as far as possible, waste and unnecessary ex-
penditure a-iti,' cry kind, with others of a like'
nittst be the condition of such unfortunate sick men, nature. These local -stiperiateudants had also the
tif sent thither from Portsmouth or Spithead during' h dd• '
c arge an irection of the discipline of the convales-
th •
e asanter months. The accommodation which B. :cent men, who had been wont to become idle and
r
rank Regimental Hospitals generally supply' is barely i
I slovenly ; and they were instructed to seed them off.
sufficient for the sick, &c. of the corps ; and it is not . to their respective regiments, as soon as the menl
uncommon that regiments encumbered with sick men, : should have been declared tit by the mediCal chief
in embarking or disembarking at Portsmouth, am ; officer on the spot. ••
' • •
three, with great delay and unavoidable trouble.
obliged to distribute them in portions of one, two, or But, although'soine degree of military'etintroul
among the Regimental Hospitals in the vicinity, ac..i-lenn
and. -direction was, undotffitedly, proper, and, in va-
s instances, even necessary, to check irregularities
cording as they may be disposed, or may have room
tort laad.long.existed,Yet the great authorities'vested.
to receive them. This pitiful shift is preferred n.the local, military supeitstendants, sometime!' itt.
Ithe miserable resource of sending sick wretches,
haps in :he last stage of debility, or arrived with ',duly
afflictive melodies from a foreign climate, in an open 1-4iiscietiou'in, -*it;
Per' ',duly and imprudently exercised, over the officers ea.
i department, who had been hitherto aluahst left to
professional career, produced
boat, ten mile! or upwards, at the mercy of thel . . al'%,kiluoieir4lei defakation inebeirjuriUdictions
winds and tide, with other incalculable delays and • being tarrisid to AIM sumartentable length inconveniences attending their transportation to the naturally excite itl the.minchl of the "Metlical. olkairs
~. - . s'.iet .1:.. - Isle of Wight.
reate' • 4474 Aieh would '
disgust, 'and c . fai ~ . • . Pftr'F.l
From what we have said, it would therefore seem ultimately injurioue; tiL dis • ..sertrice. On. the perni.
that a General Hospital, for the purpose above men-
cious effects of tnith,unsiuknandittipertittent interior-
tioned, if well conducted, either after the general or encc in strict medical dittittiled th&pmt 9f Cern:nits..
regimental plan, and on a united scale, would be ding officers and Others,Yrt 'shall haVe occasion to
found particularly useful, and even necessary for the
speak more at large, whiner come to ftfto subject 'of
speedy and effectual relief and accommodation of
evil ianpueable he General Hosp
theiltegimental Hospitals. '., ~,,r
many victims of wounds and disease which constantly, ;
I
'rbp .seeon cl itals,
•
require assistance at Portsmouth. Such a depot . is"else risitelerhich tolclieri kre exposed of catching
would reduce the great influx of sick into that of the Infectious ~,r,,,0k linnee don' Moos the coin.
Isle of Wight, and would he attended with little ad- s
plaints uhatint bills f ihey la‘ourecl Arleen they were
• I ,I‘.
ditional expellee to the country, compared to the,,ficst adawed. Foe. thik Njsiection , cheer. appears. to
great advantages which would be derived from it.—
be sem* foundation.; ,bitt-it,alsoirffectts, in a ter-
' General Hospitals will, therefore, be found useful,
min degree, *very, deseriptioit'df-Hbipitals, Aielf,
and often necessary where the nature of the service. with -all possible adventiges`r.,are nothing ele ,hap,haprequires that regiments be disencumbered of their t
the receptacles of disease an 4. contagion. When,
sick, or of their more serious eases of sickness (parti. however, General Hospitals are established, and con-
cularly contagious diseases, which should always ducted as they. ought to be, it will be found that do
be sent away from a garrison) in order to al-
low the corps to act with greater energy and activity; inconveniences will attachio General, that do not,
almost equally, affect all other Infirmaries of equal.
and, for this reason, General Hospitals will be found
magnitude.—(To be Continued.)
most useful on foreign stations, and in times of ac-
tual Service.
As the mode of conducting General Hospitals has
been as much censured as their utility has been dis-
puted, we shall now offer a few hints on the evils
with which they are said to have been frfught, as
they were usually managed. In doing this, we in-
tend to confine ourselves to the alledged evils which'
may be supposed to have had an immediate effect an
the service, without entering into the questione ON,
immethodical arrangement, government, waste, and
profusion of expence, abuses with which these esta-
blishments have been plentifully charged.
These evils may probably be comprized under the
following heads, on each of which we shall speak in
order :

• ••••••• qt
CaptßiartiONf AS FOR R EsT, of his Mainly's ship
Prometheus, fell in, on the 29th ult. with 94 vessels
pact of aadispersed convoy from gtockholin, Untie;
.protactioisn£ the Alaart bit:rot-war, which he brouglit
ddough Atio;Belt, and eaw them 20 leagues to the'
westward of the Scaw, when he left them all well on'
the Sd inet. us dur proteCtion of the Snipe and Acute
gundirigs, and returned to the Baltic. 'The Pronie;
thews was the first British ship of war inthe Belt thili
seasonvand Captain.Foinicer isrinuidiawely: desti`riyed
the telegraph on Sproe Island, which intefreptedlhe
communication between Funen and Zealand... TWA•
whs of very essential service, and his appearance in•
the-Belt at that time prevented the-embaikatloti-
the enemy's troops to Zealand. . • .
Letters of the 17th ult. have been received from
Dantzic, by way of Gottenhurgh. They state-rthat ,
the French are fitting out privateers with the greatest
alacrity in that port, to be ready to act against the
British shipping early next spring. Several French
"privateers were lately very busy in that quarter; one
was a short time ago *reeked on the coast, near Pil-
' lau, and all the crew were drowned ; another had the
audacity to enter the harbour of Memel, and capture
therein an American ship, but the Prussians opposed
their carrying off the vessel, when a scuffle took place
between the patties,' NW ;be result was, that a Prus-
sian cacer was stabbed: in the thigh. The women of
,the tow rosegiurnssee; and tilling their aprons with
stones, attacked theTrenehmen from the shore ; but
`it was nofintit f tic eves of cannon were pointed at
the vessel' that thg.mariuders relinquished their- re
I. P )•

1. When sick,soldiers are sent away from their re-
giments to a General Hospital, and from under the
eyes of their own officers, it is alledged that they g
often impose on the supposed ignorance and inexperi-
ence of those under whom they are placed, and who
are unconscious of their tricks, habits, and propensi-
ties ; that, on this icatint, soldiers often remain
away longer from. their 'regiments than is necessary,
and contract vicioua and indolent habit,ai.cgaally de-
trimental to rod order, and discipline.-
2. From the accumulation of p itientiiircted pith
all kinds of diseases, contagious disorders are more
frequent. in General than in Regimental Infirmaries;
and patients after being sent to the former are liable
to catch diseases more serious and fatal than those on
account of which they were admitted.
3. The medical officers attending General Hospitals 1
are supposed to be less zealous, diligent, anti interested,
in the discharge of their duties towards the sick pre-
miscuously placed under their care, and feel less
anxiety for their eventual fate, than regimental nu-
dical officers may be supposed always to feel for the
sick of their owa regiments, to whom they are at-
tached both by the tics of duty and regard, cemented
by a participation of hardships arid services, in a va-
i
riety of climates, and circumstances.
4. From the education of the physicians generally
entrusted with the care of General Hospitals, they
are presumed -to have little or no previous experience,
or knowledge of the diseases and constitutions of sol.
diers, nor or army medical practice, nor of the nature
of their own duties, independently of what is above
said. that they arc often liable to be imposed on by
what are called Maingerers, or those who amuse
their physician with fictitious disorders, with a view
to avoid being sent to join their regiments, and that
such tricks arc readily detected by regimental medi.
Cal officers ; er of those who, having acquired from
experience, an intimate acquaintance with the pecu-
liar characters and dispositions of soldiers, are aware
of such imp ;store, and not very liable to be deceived
by them.

Letters•from Stockholm mention that his Swedish •I
Majesty has prohibited the introduction of• English
newspapers into his dominions ; not from a spirit of
hostility, but because they hare•of late spoken in al
tone of despondency when discus,ing the affairs of
I
Sweden, which he considers may have a bad effec4,l
upon the minds of his people.

A trumpeter from the Swedish army *as latelY
shot in bearing a message in the Norwegians, not-
withstanding he sounded the instrument twiem llie
Swedish Commander in Chit Chad sent a remon-
strance to the Dar.us on the subject, but therreturn-
e&himsan satisfactory answer.

Friday morning six licautiCul Swans came down the
Thames, nearly as far as London Bridge, driven from
their usual water haunts by the severity of the wea-'
ther : they were taken,' by order of the City Comp
troller of the Sivan•homin, department; and on their
web-tharks being examineJ, it appeared that two of
them were the property of the KING, and the remain-,
der four belonged to the Corporate Body of London.
A match against time, for 100 guineas, between
Captain Parfer, of Charlotte-street, and Mr. Giblett,
was decided yesterday on the Hampstead-road. The
C.tptain undertook to perforrn four miles in 24. tni-
tones, at four starts, and the whole in threw cpArterrs
of an hour. The ground run over was an impercep-
tible ascent, and he did the first mile in five minutes
and' a second. After waiting five minutes, he per-
formed the second in five minutes and a half, and the
third in six minutes and forty seconds, with consi-
derable difficulty. The match here became a sportive
one, for although Captain Parfer bad six minutes 4.9
seconds to perform the last mile, it was even betting
that he did not start again, and two to one that hel
lost. He, however, after waiting twenty minutes,!
did start, and run the mile iu four seconds less than
the given.time.
,On Monday a young man, named Bartratn, fnr a
wager of ten guineas, undertook to go from Vest
ISmithfield to Barnet and back in two hors and a'
half, which he accomplished eight minutes within the
time, notwithstanding he had three fails in the pro-
gress if Isis journey.
. •

During the course cf the psesent war, the evils and 1
abuses of General Hospitals, even in this country,
had become so notorious, and so many representa.,
tions had been made on the subject to the authoritie,,
that it was determined to place all those establish-,
ments 'in this country tinder the inspec.tion, and im-
mediate superintendatce, of military officers. A mi.