ERY wonderful in many respects is

VERY

London; but in nothing more so than in the immensity of its extent and the vastness of its population. Ten years ago it was considered to be enormously overgrown, but since then, as the recent census shows, it has added a population about equal to that of the great city of Manchester to the number of its inhabitants. And still it grows and grows! Where and when it will stay its encroachments upon the surrounding country and cease to add to its teeming population, no one can venture to predict.

But if the growth of London in extent be something appalling, it is pleasing to see that the metropolis of the British empire is also VOL. I. JULY, 1871.

So

growing somewhat in architectural improvement and in general appearance. rapidly are changes for the better taking place in streets and buildings, that the "City" proper-the Lord Mayor's city-is fast losing its identity. But in no part of the capital will a visitor, who has been absent from London during the last dozen years, see a greater alteration for the better than in the vicinity of Westminster Bridge. Standing upon that noble structure— which is itself one of the improvements of recent years-and looking down the river, the spectator cannot but be admiringly struck with the fine appearance presented by the Thames Embankment. All the way to

H

Blackfriars Bridge, on the Middlesex shore, a grand breast-work of granite, ornamented with sculptured lions and other decorations in appropriate taste, presents its massive front to the river; while along its summit, a pleasant promenade, with a broad carriageway running parallel, extends the whole length of the embankment. Looking up the Thames, the spectator has on his right the new Houses of Parliament, which constitute the grandest of metropolitan palaces. This magnificent structure, as seen from the bridge, with its river frontage of nine hundred feet, its lofty towers, and its elaborate traceries and decorations, produces an effect upon the beholder not likely to be soon effaced from his memory. On the opposite side of the Thames, the Embankment is continued on the Surrey shore up the river, as far as Vauxhall Bridge, giving a Parisian aspect to the whole scene. "But what are these?" a stranger is sure to ask, as he points to a number of new buildings, extending from the Surrey end of Westminster Bridge for several hundred yards along the Embankment, and directly facing the Houses of Parliament. The correct answer to this question must be :-These buildings are the new St. Thomas's Hospital; here one of the oldest medical charities of London, after having been dislodged from its ancient residence near London Bridge, has found a new and costly home.

The hospitals of London form an important part of its benevolent institutions. Some of them-as St. Luke's and Bethlehem (better known as Bedlam)-are for the insane. Others are for aged pensioners who have served their country in the army or navy. At that of Chelsea many an old soldier still "shoulders his crutch, and shows how fields were won." But at Greenwich, the venerable Jack Tars, who spun long yarns by the banks of the Thames, have been "improved" out of the place. The larger number of London hospitals, however, are for the sick and hurt. In addition to the smaller ones, supported mainly by voluntary contributions, such as Charing Cross, King's College, and University College Hospitals, there are the large institutions of this kind with considerable endowments belonging to them. deserving of special notice may be mentioned St. Bartholomew's Hospital, which was founded by Rahere, the King's minstrel, in the year 1102, and re-founded by Henry VIII. in 1546; Guy's Hospital, founded by Thomas Guy, a London bookseller, in 1721; and St. Thomas's Hospital, which is the subject of this sketch.

As

The date given for the foundation of this noble charity for the reception of the necessitous sick and injured is A.D. 1553. It was in that year that King Edward VI. incoporated a society of persons for its government. Still it had an existence before it received a royal charter. It had its origin really as early as the year 1215, when Peter de Rupibus, Bishop of Winchester, erected a building, as a kind of hospital, dedicated it to St. Thomas, the Apostle, and endowed it with certain lands, in connection with a priory in Southwark. In 1428 one of the abbot's granted the foundation lands to Nicholas Buckland, master of the hospital, and so they remained until "Bluff Harry turned the cowls adrift at the dissolution of the monasteries. During the reign of his son Edward VI. the corporation of London purchased the manor of Southwark from the King, St. Thomas's Hospital being part of the purchase. The city immediately repaired and enlarged it, and the young King granted the charter of incorporation already referred to.

Since its foundation, St. Thomas's Hospital has had its vicissitudes. By the great fire of London, much of its house-property was destroyed, and the charity would have been completely ruined, only that the governors and citizens came to the rescue with large and liberal contributions. In consequence of the help thus afforded, the hospital was considerably enlarged in the reign of William III. The last great change is that which has removed the locale of the institution from the old site near London Bridge, which it occupied for several centuries, to the new buildings near Westminster Bridge. The change was not altogether the result of choice on the part of the governors, but has been necessitated by the exigencies of this railway age. The plain story is this:-The directors of the South-Eastern Railway Company wished to carry their line across the Thames to Cannon Street. In order to this, they required a part of the hospital premises, but the directors, judging that giving up a part would spoil the remainder, compelled the company to take the whole. With the purchase money, which amounted to nearly £400,000, they have erected the new buildings. In the interim, between the pulling down of the old hospital and the opening of the new, the institution took refuge in the Surrey Music Hall.

St. Thomas's Hospital has had its share of royal favour. Edward VI. is recognized as the founder; and now Queen Victoria appears as its patroness and friend in connection

with the new buildings. On the 13th of September, 1868, her Majesty, accompanied by the Prince of Wales, and other members of the Royal Family, laid the foundation-stone at Stangate, Lambeth, with a golden trowel, which is at present on view in the International Exhibition at Kensington. It is, therefore, only in harmony with all this that the noble chain of buildings known as the new St. Thomas's Hospital should be opened for the reception of patients by England's Queen, and should receive at its inaugural ceremonial the benediction of English Christianity.

The sight of a hospital is suggestive. A medical charity is not without important lessons, which it is not difficult for men to learn. Who can inspect or think of such an institution without being taught thereby that we live in a world of suffering and sin? The catalogue of diseases scientifically treated at. a first-class hospital, which is also a medical school, like that of St. Thomas, is something appalling in its extent and its painful suggestiveness. If the story of every individual patient treated in the institution during the last three hundred years were written out in detail, what a voluminous record of frightful suffering and appalling misery would apAnd as it has been in the old buildpear ! ing so it will be in the new. Very different to the gaiety, pageantry, and festivity of the opening ceremonial will be the scenes of pain and agony which the walls of these seven buildings will witness for centuries to come! And yet there is a false theology prevalent in certain quarters which overlooks the analogies of the present life in speculating upon

the life which is to come, and which teaches that God is too good to inflict pain upon men hereafter. In opposition to this cheap benevolence, which overlooks the Divine justice, the views of God's judicial character set forth in the Bible are in complete harmony with the state of human suffering which exists around us. The physical evils in this world are the consequences of sin. Had there been no sin, there would have been no suffering in this life, and none in that which is to come.

But the sight of a hospital reminds men of the existence of human benevolence-of Christian benevolence-for such institutions had no existence in heathen countries. A hospital is an organization of Good Samaritanism. Medical charities are amongst the most urgent and useful charities that exist. Although they cannot work miracles, nor ensure a cure as a matter of course, yet they are the means of much good in the relief of suffering, the mitigation of pain, and the healing of diseases. An institution that

secures the best medical skill gratuitously for the indigent sick is worthy of all honour and support. Highly favoured is the city which has such an institution! and still more privileged were the people who were ministered unto by Him who healed "all manner of sickness and disease." He

gave, when questioned, as the proof of His own Messiahship: "The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them." Happy is it with those whose sin-sick souls are healed by the Good Physician ! T. M'C.

No. II. THE RED KING. EFORE William le Rouge ("the Red," so

BEFO

named from his complexion) could complete his hasty journey from his father's death-bed to England, the tidings of the Conqueror's decease overtook him. This made him more anxious than ever to reach the kingdom, and secure its throne and treasure. The latter, to the amount of sixty thousand pounds of fine silver, besides gold and jewels, he procured by dint of threats. and promises from the treasurer at Winchester; the former he obtained by the vote of the Norman-English barons in solemn

100

now owed a divided allegiance, having fiefs both in England and Normandy, did not all concur in this arrangement. It was not long before a plot was devised, principally under the direction of Odo of Bayeux, (whom the Conqueror, when dying, had set at liberty,) and an attempt was made to wrest the monarchy from William, and to make Robert possessor of both the ducal coronet and the English crown. William appealed to his Saxon subjects for help, making generous promises, and repealing the poll-tax and other odious levies. Thirty thousand Saxons enrolled themselves under the King's banner, and with the Norman cavalry advanced under his leadership against Rochester Castle, where Odo was awaiting the arrival of the Duke Robert.

orous cries arose from their ranks: "Bring ropes, and let us hang the traitor-bishop." With the curses of the English ringing in his ears, Odo made his escape to Bayeux, never again to touch the shores of Britain.

The King's ends being gained, all his promises to the Saxons were broken, and all the concessions he had made withdrawn. He fastened the yoke on the subject race more heavily and cruelly than before.

The attempt on the throne of England on the part of Robert was retaliated by the invasion of Normandy. Owing to the corrup

tions prevalent under Robert's indolent rule, a large number of malcontents were ready to co-operate with William, and he soon made himself master of all the fortresses on the north bank of the Seine, and would have succeeded in expelling his brother from the duchy. But by the intervention of the French King, a reconciliation was effected, and it was agreed that whichever brother survived the other should hold both England and Normandy. Meanwhile, Henry had purchased a large district of Normandy, called the Cotentin, from Robert.

William and

Robert becoming alarmed at his growing power, besieged him in the castle of Mount St. Michael. The little garri

son was soon

in danger of perishing from hunger and thirst. William would have let famine do its fatal work, but Robert, always the most generous of the brothers, sent supplies of water to Henry, saying, "Shall we let a brother die of thirst? Where shall we find another, if we lose him?" Henry obliged to yield,

was

but permitted to withdraw from the fortress. The Scots, under Malcolm, made frequent raids upon the northern portion of the country. The Scottish King claimed Northumberland and Cumberland as appanages of his crown, and enraged at the fortification of Carlisle and the settlement of an English colony there, Malcolm, at the head of an undisciplined army, made an incursion into Northumberland, but was repulsed and slain before Alnwick Castle by a superior force under the command of Roger de Mowbray. His son Edward was also slain, and his good

101

personage than Urban II., the "Father of Christendom."

On the tenth day of the council, the vast multitude being gathered around the unfinished cathedral, beside the Pope on his lofty seat stands forth a short, thin, sunburnt man, clothed in coarse serge and girded with a cord, upon whom all eyes are turned, and by whose exciting words all ears are arrested. This is Peter the Hermit, of Picardy, a pilgrim returned from Jerusalem, where he

has been a prisoner in the hands of the Turks, and has witnessed the cruel sufferings and indignities inflicted upon the faithful who visit the Holy Land. He describes the blasphemies and profanities

of the infidels, and

with tears and choked utterance, tells how he has seen the very ministers of God beaten and slain. The

appeals to them to take up arms and rescue the Holy Land from the Turcoman, in one loud cry, as the sound of many waters, "God wills it; God wills it! It is the will of God," breaks from the excited multitude. From town to town Peter pursues his mission through Europe, until three hundred thousand fanatics are arrayed under him and his aide-de-camp, Walter," Have Nought," a German knight. The rabble host, unprovisioned and undisciplined, marched on, plundering as they went, till, provoking the revenge of the people among whom they passed, many were