POSTSCRIPT.
SATURDAY MORNING.
The appeal to the public on behalf of our wounded soldiers, originating with the letter of Sir Robert Peel to the Times last week, has raised up- wards of 70001 in seven days ; and Sir Robert has just conveyed to the public, through the same medium, the arrangements entered into, by him- self and the Times, "as joint trustees," for applying the fund without delay.
"A gentleman, with great qualifications to fulfil a teak of much delicacy and trust, has been commissioned to proceed within twelve hours to Con- stantinople, and there superintend, acting upon the advice of, and as much as possible in conjunction with, some of our respected merchants and other persons of influence on the spot, the distribution of what public gratitude has furnished, not for the purchase of absolute necessaries, which it is the province of Government to supply, but, as the Duke of Beaufort justly ob- serves, of those comforts and even luxuries which will be of immense be- nefit to the wounded.' An accurate and detailed statement, audited by Mr. Locke Mr. Lyne Stephens, and me, will be famished of the disbursements which' may have taken place, for the public information. •
"As regards the practical effects which have resulted from your powerful advocacy and this expression of public sympathy, I would observe, that the Secretary of State for War acquainted me last evening, that although he trusted many of the statements which had been current in this country of the ineffi- ciency of the medical staff in the East to minister to the wants of oar sick,and wounded were exaggerated, yet that the greatest benefits bad' flowed freak the inquiries which the statements in the Tintes of deficiencies and sufferings, and the public response to them in this country, had occasioned ; and that in consequence, he had written to the British Ambassador at Constantinople, urging his immediate attention to the state of the hospitals, which appears from this to have been hitherto neglected, and that he had placed at his disposal an unlimited credit from the public resources, to provide whatever might be needed to alleviate the -acknowledged sufferings of our men. This liberal application of the public money, thus tardily placed at the Ambassador's disposal, will not by any means interfere with the distribution, or, at all events, the value of the resources of the special fund for the sick and wounded ; and, in order to maintain a harmony of operation, a letter of recommendation (in the event of its being needed) has been sent to the British Ambassador in favour of the gentleman charged with our commiasion. " I would moreover add, that the official representative of another of, the numerous departments connected with the Army acquainted me, that al- though an ample supply of medical stores and surgical appliances had been forwarded to the East, yet it did appear that there had been culpable -neg- ligence in the further despatch of these from Constantinople to appointed places, the consequences of which might have been most serious; and that instructions had been sent to try by court-martial the-officials charged with this gross remissness of duty."
Under a special arrangement with the Peninsular and Oriental qom- pany, a number of surgeons, and the staff of Bursas Organized hy Mrs. Nightingale, will leave England today, and embark at Marseilles on the 27th in the Vectis, for Constantinople ; where, it is anticipated, they will arrive on the 4th November.
The Board of Managers of the London Orphan Asylum have passed a resolution, recommending to the General Court the free and immediate admission of six children of commissioned- and non-commissioned officers of her Majesty's Army who have fallen in' the present war, into the in- stitution.
The Commfttee of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel deter- mined yesterday to call a special meeting of the Society for Thursday next, to consider the expediency of sending an additional number h' clergymen to minister to the sick and wounded at the seat of war. This step has been taken -with the fat sanction 'and concurrence of the Go- vernment.
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