Masons of the County of Warwick, to the Royal Arch Masons, and also to the Masters, and Officers, and Brethren of other more distant Lodges, for the honour and favour of their attendance and services on the occasion. That the best thanks of the council be given to Lieutenant-Colonel Wyndham and the Officers of the Royal Scots Greys, for their polite and gratifying attend. ance, and further to Lieutenant-Colonel Wyndham, for his highly obliging permission of the services of the Regimental Band. EDWARD JOHNSTONE, Principal. The president having left the chair, and Dr. Booth having taken the same,— It was resolved unanimously, That the council eagerly embrace this opportunity of testifying to their principal their high sense of the great obligations due to him for his untiring zeal and exertions in the promotion of the establishment of the Queen's Hospital. JOHN K. BOOTH, Chairman. 228 THE GENERAL HOSPITAL. WITHOUT any disparagement to kindred institutions, there is no charity-it may be emphatically asserted-which presents so great claims on the sympathy and liberality of the inhabitants not only of this town and district, but also of the whole of Warwickshire and the adjacent counties, as the Birmingham General Hospital. This invaluable institution has, indeed, long taken rank as one of the noblest charities in the provinces, and has rendered incalculable services to suffering humanity; while the great Triennial Festivals held on its behalf, and the influence they have exercised on the progress of music have gained for it a much wider reputation than that of almost any similar institution in the kingdom. It has been most valuable, not only to the recipients of its bounty, but to all classes of the community, by the opportunities it has afforded for the cultivation of medical science, and the investigation of all kinds of disease. It has been most fortunate, also, in having enrolled amongst its medical officers many of the ablest members of the profession-gentlemen who have rightly estimated the importance of their onerous duties, and been guided in the performance of them by a truly Christian spirit. In the management of what may be termed the business department of the hospital, successive boards of governors have shown a conscientious desire to extend its usefulness and maintain its high position. These are not merely individual opinions. We have no doubt that what we have stated will meet with a hearty and general concurrence; and we do not think we are wrong in believing that an institution which has been so long and so prominently before the public is looked upon with great interest by a large and influential class of society, that its claims will meet with a generous sympathy, and that support which the constantly increasing demands upon it render necessary. In common with our fellow-townsmen, we have seen with deep concern the statements which have recently been published as to the financial condition of the charity, and which have made painfully apparent the fact that while the internal arrangements were never more efficiently conducted than at present, and the demand for the benefits afforded never more urgently sought-the operations of the hospital must be considerably reduced unless public liberality shall provide a permanent addition to the income adequate to the relief of the many urgent claims upon its bounty. At the quarterly meeting held in March last, the medical board presented a report stating, as their deliberate conviction, "the absolute and imperative necessity for an increase in the accommodation for in-patients." This report was referred to the House Committee, with instructions "to prepare a special appeal to the public for funds to enable the Weekly Board to carry out the recommendation of the Medical Board by erecting a second wing to the Hospital." In order to aid the committee in this good work, we purpose briefly to bring before our readers some information with regard to this charity; to point out how worthy it is of a more extended measure of support than it has yet received, not only from the inhabitants of this town and the immediate neighbourhood, but also from those in this and the adjoining counties who are blessed with the means, and, still happier, with the disposition to aid in so good a work; and to add some observations in regard to what we consider is required from the governors, namely, a more perfect and systematic organisation with the view of increasing the resources of the hospital. To Dr. John Ash, a physician who practised in this town during a considerable portion of the last century, must be |