The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-01-21 00:00:00

SOUTHERN AND TOXTETH HOSPITAL

In our last we gave a br;ef report of the proceedings at the
first annual meeting of this excellent charity ; and as, pro-
bably, not many of our readers are acquainted with the com-
modious and substantial building which has been erected to
carry out the benevolent objects of the subscribers, we have
been induced to procure a description of it, which we sub-

The building is situate at the lower ends of, and between,
Parliament and Greenland streets, immediately adjoining
(eastward) St. Barnabas' Church.

The whole of the building covers an area of 1130 superficial
yards, and cost, according to Mr. Bateman's estimate with
addition, a little above 43000.

The accommodation, as regards arrangement and conve-
nience, is superior to anything of a similar kind in the king-
dom, arid is chiefly on one floor,—a great desideratum in
hospitals for patients maimed or injured by falls, bruises,
&c.

The principal entrance is from Flint-street, by a pede
mented porch, where the building rises the height of two
stories above the basement, in which division, on the groune
floor, are=one side of the vestibule, house surgeon's room and
bed-room, and a very neat and commodious committee-
room. On the other side of the vestibule are—a spacious
staircase, matron room, and store-room attached, &c. &c.

The basement floor underneath contains a large and spa-
cious kitchen, with cooking apparatus of different kinds,
scullery, larder, pantries, wine-cellar, &c. On the upper
floor, communicating with the principal or ground floor by
the staircase already mentioned, are, on one side of it—two
wards for female patients, with nurse's room attached,
housemaid's closet, &c. On the other—matron's bedroom,
and servant's ditto, &e., &c.

In the back part of the building, which•is one story high,
and a basement on the ground floor, are the wards, nurse-
rooms, &c., on each side of a corridor, 13 feet wide, which
communicates by folding-doors with the vestibule of the
front building; and again, by another vestibule, of nearly the
same width, at the lower end, which leads out by a lodge-
door to Greenland=street.

Four wards contain respectively beds for eight patients,
and two for four, making, in all, in this division, 40 beds.
A peculiar feature in the arrangement of the wards of this
hospital are passages, 7 feet wide, between them, with the
nurse-rooms at their extremities ; in which passages are four
small closets, communicating with the wards by double
doors ' • in these are contained the patients' excretions, &c.,
thereby preserving the purity of the atmosphere of the wards.
This we consider a most important improvement on the old
system.

- The whole of the wards are thoroughly lighted, heated, and
ventilated. The ventilation is the most perfect that possibly
can be imagined; each patient, in winter or summer, is sup-
plied with a sufficient quantity of pure air of a suitable tem-
perature, while the vitiated air is constantly drawn off at the
height of the ceiling, by flues communicating with a room in
which a stove is kept constantly burning.

At the extreme lower end of the building, and communi-
cating with the corrider, are, a large and well-lighted oper-
ating theatre, with bath-room, consultation and waiting-
room attached.

There are also in connection with the above apartment a
large and commodious pupil's room, laboratory, and water-
closets.

On the side of Greenland-street, communicating with the
lower vestibule inside and flight of steps externally, are the
porter's waiting-room and bed-room.
In the basement floor, underneath the above apartment,
are washhouse, drying-closets, laundry, and other conveni-
ences, all communicating with the apartments in the front
basement, by a corridor of the same width as the upper.
It is right to state that the plans of the building were fur-
nished gratuitously by Messrs. Cunningham and Holme, and
have given the greatest possible satisfaction.
[At the meeting of the Dock Committee yesterday, it will
be seen that an annual subscription of £lOO per annum has
been voted to this excellent institution.]

THE NATIONAL BOARD OF EDUCATION,

(From the Rev. _Robert James M`Ghee's last Letter to
Lord Stanley.)

Ist.—lnstead of protecting the rights of conscience, it has
grossly violated them; and not those of Protestants alone,
but of the unfortunate Roman Catholic population, whom it
was especially intended to protect.
_ _

2dly.—lt has totally failed to conciliate or satisfy the Ro-
man Catholics of Ireland.

3dly.—So far from producing concord or united education,
it has intruded more disunion—more discord—more acri-
mony—into the whole nation than any system of education
that ever was propounded in Ireland ; and this not only
among those whom it professed to reconcile, but it has gen-
dered strifes, where strife was never known, and separated
those who had never before felt the bitterness of even a dif-
ference of opinion on the subject. A. few brief remarks will
evince the truth of these assertions.
As to its violation of the rights of conscience of Protes-
tants, it has struck a blow at the very fundamental princi-
ples of our church—namely, the integrity and perfection of
the scriptures as the standard of all true religion—all sound
divine instruction for man. The free and unrestricted right
to use them—the blessing of scriptural education for our
children, that, like Timothy, " from a child they might
know the holy scriptures, which are able to make them wise
unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus."
These principles are incorporated with the very existence of
our church—and to compel us • to co-operate in a system
which interdicts God's word in the national schools as a
school-book—and this to meet and justify the principle of
the Papal apostacy, that it is not a proper book for the edu-
cation of children—is to strike a blow at the very founda-
tions of our faith—to exact from us a surrender of principle
—to put in force the most unjustifiable tyranny on the part
of the government to which we neither can nor will submit.
It is not against Protestants alone that this is committed,
but against the whole Roman Catholic lay population of Ire-
land. The Board of Education was a most cruel invasion of
the rights of their consciences. I know how far this was
from your lordship's intention ; but I will explain, with your
lordship's permission. Your lordship labours under the la-
mentable misconception—which I believe is common to too
many British statesmen, even of those best informed in all
other subjects—you imagine that Popery is a system of reli-
gion in which priesthood and laity are all one body, with one
mind and one object. There are some points in which this
is true, but others in which it is totally erroneous. The
Romish hierarchy and priesthood are, by their system, an
incorporated body of tyrants, who keep up, by means of a
duplicity arid imposture which they censider perfectly justi-
fiable, the most absolute despotism over the consciences of
the whole lay population. Some, individuals are, of course,
less enthralled than others ; but if they are not personally
the dupes and slaves of their priests, they are the dupes and
slaves of that esprit de corps which elevates the priesthood,
and renders all the laity slaves in form, at least, if not in
heart—the whole female population are enslaved to the most
abject condition.
Now, one act of tyranny practised by the Papal priesthood
is the interdicting the Bible to the laity. The rule of their
church is absolute that the laity are not to dare to have or
use the Bible without permission. This rule they pretend
sometimes to deny or evade: it is, in fact, like many other
of their India-rubber principlei, which they dilate or con-
tract according to circumstances. They will swear to an ig-
norant liberal Protestant, that there is no such restriction in
their church—while, again, if a poor man dares to have a
Bible, without their leave, they will deny him the sacraments,
or, perhaps, drag the Bible from under his dying pillow, and
burn it on the road.

The grounds on which they exercise this despotic tyranny,
and the imposture by which they justify it to the people, it is
not now my object to prove—it is enough to state the fact.
The priests use their utmost efforts to keep the people in Scrip-
tural ignorance and slavery, and, therefore, they hate Scrip-
tural schools. But vast and growing multitudes of the
poor Roman Catholic people are writhing under this ty-
ranny over their consciences—they love Scripture instruc-
tion for their children, and long for it. When they
had only schools in which it was given, they sent their
children to them in thousands ; for, as the priests had
no other schools at the time, they could not take
the children away. But now the Board of Education
has given the priests a power of supplying the people to a
considerable extent with their anti-scriptural schools ; and
thus, instead of promoting or protecting liberty of conscience,
it is a mere engine in the hands of the priesthood for spiritual
oppression—it joins with the priest to trample on this liberty,
and to enslave the consciences of the people. If your lord-
ship demands a fact that proves it to demonstration—that, at
this moment, in defiance of the tyranny of the priests, and
the co-operating despotism of the Board of L:ducation, there
are more than 21,000 Roman catholic children in the schools
of our Church Education Society, and above 31,000 in those
of the London Hibernian Society, independent of the many
thousands far greater than those attending the schools of the
Irish Society—the schools of other societies, and of indivi-
duals, besides those who attend adult schools, and Sunday
schools in Ireland—so that to imagine that the national board
protects the liberty of conscience of the Roman Catholic popu-
lation, is the grossest delusion to be conceived. Mr. O'Connell
and the Popish members of the House of Commons may con-
tend for it, but why, my lord ? Because they must do as the
men to whom they are indebted for their seats command
them ; they must echo the voices of their spiritual and politi-
cal masters and the Papal hierarchy of Ireland. But there
are hundreds of thousands of poor Roman Catholics in Ire-
land, if their voices could be heard, and if they dared to
speak, who would drown the interested clamour of these po-
litical slaves to their priests, who are the tyrants and task-
masters of the people, with shouts for spiritual liberty and
Scriptural education, that would make the walls of St. Ste-
phen ring to their foundation.
But again : your lordship's plan has not only signally
failed, and even counteracted your own intentions, in this
object, but you have totally disappointed your own ex-
pectations in conciliating the Roman eatholics by this
system. What is the fact? There is not one living states-
man who has succeeded in sacrificing, so tar as depends on
legislative measures, so much of the sound principles, the
property, and the government of the protestant church,
to conciliate the members of the papacy, as your lord-
ship ; and there is not a living statesman whom they so
cordially abhor and so loudly vituperate and denounce. Your
lordship will justly say you totally disregard this, when you
are conscious of having done what you considered your duty.
I know your lordship's high and noble character and spirit. I
merely want to convince you how totally you have been de-
ceived. Your lordship only requires to be reminded of the
failure of this experiment of the National Board, by your
attention being called to the conflict on the subject between
Doctors Murray and AlacHale, Archbishops of the Papal
apostacy in Dublin and Tuam. The one honestly denouncing
the board as a system hateful to the Papacy, because it inter-
feres at all with their religion—the other jesuitically support-
ing it, because it helps Popery to deprive the poor of the
• Bible. But your lordship will remark that there is one
whole province in Ireland from which the National Board is
totally excluded as far as Papal influence can effect it, so that
here, too, your lordship must admit the plan is utterly abor-
tive of even the one result in which you had not anticipated
it could possibly fail.
But as to its great and avowed object—that of producing
a united system of instruction between Roman Catholics and
Protestants, your lordship does not require that a line should
be written on the subject. You have seen that it is hope-
less—you are convinced that it is impossible. You have
seen that the bishops and clergy of the church of Ireland,
with a few exceptions, which it would be too painful to
dwell on, have felt bound to set their faces decidedly against
the system, and though the Irish church has been crippled
and pillaged, and has never been reduced to such straits since
it was established in the country, and though it never was
so distressed for means to educate the people, still neither
power, nor intimidation, nor influence, nor persecution,
nor poverty, nor distress, have been able to force it
to co-operate in a system so utterly repugnant to its own
sound principle, and to the word and authority of God. But
while this system has separated Roman Catholics from each
other, and Roman Catholics from Protestants more widely
than ever before, it has produced results still snore painful
and disastrous to our church. Surely there never was a time
when men who were anxious for her prosperity, ought to
have been more desirous to unite us in firm co-operation for
the maintenance of her very existence. But this plan, which
your lordship so disastrously introduced, has proved a very
apple of discord amongst us : it has superinduced a state of
things from which every true Christian, and every true
churchman, must recoil with heartfelt sorrow.

We were enabled a few weeks ago to announce that the sub-
ject of emigration to British colonies, as an affair of national
policy, was under the consideration. of the Colonial-office.
We have now the satisfaction to state that the details of a
Government measure to aid the spontaneous desire to emi-
grate to those possessions are in the hands of Lord. Stanley,
—Morniny Herald.