which, upon a population of 48,000,000 of souls, (exclusive of the Asiatic population,) gives about one pupil for 104 inhabitants; but this cannot satisfy M. de Krusenstern. In order to obtain a more favourable proportion, and thus enhance the splendour of Russian civilization, he undertakes to calculate the number of children enjoying a home education, -an extremely difficult subject, upon which nothing can be established except approximatively and very uncertainly. Thus he estimates that there are in Russia,

Now, after allowing for the pupils taught in the schools, M. de Krusenstern thinks himself authorized to take the number of children that enjoy a home education at 597,424 individuals. Thus would Russia have one pupil for every fifty-two inhabitants, a proportion which M. de Krusenstern yet farther reduces to one in forty-eight*; why, unless through forgetfulness, cannot be conjectured. With the following reflections, which give the last touch characteristic of

* According to M. Ouvaroff's last report, this proportion had, in 1837, become one in forty-five. The minister calculates, doubtless, upon data as problematic as M. de Krusenstern's,-a proof of the distrust with which Russian reports, even when official, must be received.

Improvement of Ireland. Medical Charities.

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the existing system of public education in Russia, the author concludes his work:

"An education appropriate to the wants of every class in "the nation, appears to us to offer the surest guarantee for "the maintenance of the ideas of order and stability, and to "be alone capable of opposing a curb to that impatience for "movement and exaltation which is almost always the fruit "of a superficial education. A system of tuition framed upon "this principle constitutes, in our opinion, the most solid "basis of real prosperity; it, in a manner, marks out to every "citizen the sphere within which he should strive to distin"guish himself, but which he must not desire to overstep, in "order thus to abandon himself to the chances of a chimeri"cal futurity, and of a happiness almost always illusory.”

ARTICLE VIII.

Improvement of Ireland.-The Medical Charities.

1. Political Medicine; or Medicine considered in its relations to Government and Legislation. By H. MAUNSELL, M.D., one of the Professors in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. London: 1839.

2. Sixteenth Report of the Inspectors-General of the Prisons of Ireland. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 6th March, 1838.

3. General and local Reports upon the Existing System of Public Medical Relief in Ireland. Poor Inquiry, Ireland. (Appendix B.) Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 8th July, 1835.

AMONGST a population like that of Ireland, of which so large a proportion are placed at the extreme verge of existence, and where every deficiency in the crop upon which they rely for support is accompanied by visitations of pestilence and famine, the establishment and proper regulation of medical institutions, by means of which the progress of contagious diseases may be checked, becomes a subject of the greatest importance VOL. VIII,No. XVI.

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to the rich and the poor,- -one which addresses itself not less forcibly to the instincts of self-preservation, than to the charitable feelings of every member of the community. Notwithstanding, however, that a great part of Ireland is well provided with infirmaries, dispensaries and fever-hospitals, and large sums are annually raised for their support, yet the public are very far from deriving the benefits which they are entitled to expect from these establishments.

There are few hospitals at present in Ireland of private foundation, yet at an early period there were many ample endowments of this description for the benefit of the poor. The early churches generally applied the quarta pars of their revenues, which was allotted to this purpose, to the maintenance of houses of charity, afterwards denominated hospitals, and nearly every church was provided with one of these houses for the reception of widows, orphans and strangers. Of these, priests and deacons were superintendents, by right of their offices, subject to the control of the bishop. We find an Act on the statute-book, passed in the reign of Elizabeth* for the restitution to the crown of one of these hospitals, called St. John's Jerusalem, the recital of which sufficiently proves the great extent of its revenues. It had been surrendered by Sir John Rawson, its prior, to king Henry VIII.; and queen Mary, as the Act sets forth, "not having due consideration "and regard to the maintenance, upholding, and good con"tinuance of the state of the imperial crown of this realm "in succession, which rather needed an augmentation than "a diminution," granted the hospital to Sir Oswald Messingberde, one of the successors of Sir John Rawson. The Act was therefore passed which made void those letters-patent, and re-invested it in the crown. Similar institutions were erected, in course of time, by charitable and pious persons, endowed with ample resources, of which the clergy commonly had the administration. It appears, however, that, in breach of the trust committed to them, they commonly converted these hospitals into a sort of benefice, which they held at their pleasure, refusing to give any account of them, and appropriating their revenues to their own use. In

*2 Eliz. c. 7. (Ir.)

remedy whereof an Act was passed in the reign of Charles I.* "for the advancement of pious intentions, and the better ex"ecution of charitable uses and trusts," which provided" that "all archbishops and bishops, from the time any grant to them “ made of any lands, unto the use or for the erection of any 66 hospital, or for any other charitable use, warranted by the "laws of the realm now established and in force, shall be com

pelled, by way of subpoena in Chancery, to execute and per"form such trusts according to the true intent of the conveyances to them in that be half made." Amongst the decrees of the Council of Vienne there is one which prohibits the giving any hospital to secular priests in the way of benefice, and directs that the administration thereof shall be given to laymen, who shall take an oath for the faithful discharge of this trust, and account to the Ordinaries. This decree was confirmed by the Council of Trent. In 1364 an epistle was written by pope Urban V. to the bishop of Marseilles, directing that founders of hospitals should give their administration, not to ecclesiastics, but to men of prudence and probity, who might employ their revenues faithfully for the good of the poort. The Ordinance of Blois in like manner, in 1576, directed that the administration of hospitals should be confided to citizens, not to ecclesiastics ‡. By the statute 2 Hen. V. c. 1. it was provided that the ordinary should visit all hospitals founded by subjects, reserving to the king his right of visiting by his commissioners such as were of royal foundation. The lay right, however, was restored by the 39 Elizabeth, c. 5., which enabled any persons, by deed enrolled in Chancery, to erect and found hospitals to be incorporated, and to remain under the direction of the founder and his heirs, provided the funds should not be diverted to any other use than that for which they were created.

Many of the old hospitals still exist in England, as noble monuments of the piety and charity of former times; while those of private institution, and almshouses munificently endowed, abound in every quarter of this favoured country. We

*10 Car. I. (Sess. 3.) c. 1.

† L'Antiquité de l'Eglise de Marseille, par l'Evêque de Belzunce, tome ii., pages 182, 452, 439.

‡ Avertissement sur l'édit de Blois, par Jean Duret, edition de 1586, p. 129.

can only afford space to mention a few of the former, situate in London. St. Bartholomew's, which belonged to the priory of St. Bartholomew in Smithfield, founded by Rahere about the year 1102, and rebuilt in 1729. Bethlehem, or Bedlam, which was originally the hospital of a priory founded by Simon Fitzmary, sheriff of London in 1246, and rebuilt by the city of London in 1675. Christ's, commonly called the Blue-coat Hospital, which anciently belonged to a monastery of grey friars, founded by Rahere, the prior thereof in the time of Henry I.: it was granted to the city of London by Henry VIII. in 1547, confirmed in 1552 by the charter of Edward VI., who converted it into an hospital for poor children. It is now a noble school, with exhibitions to the universities; but, like many other of the English charities, the children of the better classes now chiefly profit by that which was originally instituted for the poor. The hospital of St. Thomas (Becket) in Southwark, founded by Richard, prior of Bermondsey in 1213, and surrendered to king Henry VIII. in 1538. In 1551 the mayor and citizens of London having purchased of Edward VI. the manor of Southwark, this hospital was included in the sale. It was several times enlarged, and rebuilt in 1732. Bridewell was also granted to the city by Edward VI., and confirmed by Parliament. The Charterhouse (or Chartreuse), called Sutton's Hospital from the name of its founder, established by king James by letters-patent in 1611, confirmed by Parliament in 1628. The Foundling Hospital, established at the solicitation of Thomas Coram, by royal charter, in the 13th of George II., where foundling children are nursed, educated and provided with all necessaries until they attain the age appointed for their discharge, when they receive a sum of money to promote their settlement in life. Amongst these national institutions, which reflect more than any other to the eye of the philanthropist the greatness of England, it is scarcely necessary to add Chelsea and Greenwich Hospitals, the admiration of foreigners, and the glory of the British service.

The charities of private foundation are scarcely less munificent. Amongst those in London, we may mention Guy's, in the parish of Southwark, founded by Thomas Guy, a wealthy citizen and bookseller of London, in 1722. Emanuel