Masonic Intelligence.

Zetland , and the result of their united efforts was the laying of the corner-stone of the Sussex Wing of the Royal Free Hospital . In the course of the observations which he had already addressed to the company , he had alluded to the propriety of their endowing the hospital , and he had now to annovmce that he had already received £ 52 towards a fund for that purpose . The Chairman then said , that the next toast on his list was one which needed no words of his to recommend it to them . It was all very well to toast an individual or

an institution when either of them were at the top of the tree ; but the merits by which they obtained that position should never be overlooked . The Royal Free Hospital had commenced with small beginnings , and hacl indefatigably battled for the high position which it at present enjoyed , and what noble charitable institution , he would ask , had not similarly originated and succeeded ? When , however , they looked upon them ancl the good they did , they were too apt to forget those who had commenced themwhose hand had plied the labouring oarand who hacl stood the brunt

, , of opposition , determined to overcome all difficulties . On the present occasion such should not be the case , for they would recollect that it was owing to the untiring exertions of his friend , Dr . Marsden , ancl no profession had done more than the medical for the benefit of mankind—that , despite of all opposition , the institution he had referred to had been firmly established . He should , therefore , ask them to pay him that mark of respect which he deserved at their hands , and drink his health , in conjunction with that of the Hospital Committee . —( Cheers . )

Dr . Marsden—who , on rising , was loudly applauded—in replying to tbe compliment said that , it -was due to those gentleman who knew little or nothing of the Royal Free Hospital that he should give them a short history of that institution . The condition of the Medical charities of London 27 years since , had been totally different from what it was at the present time . At that time , and he spoke especially of the "three richest endowed of those institutions , no patient could secure medical or surgical treatment without a letter of a governor , and in the wealthiest of them— -St . Bartholomew ' s—until very recently such had been the c . ise . If the wretched patient was

suffering from a loathsome disease , the letter was not accounted sufficient without an undertaking from a householder , thatiu case the unfortunate sufferer died , he would receive the corpse for interment . There was also for such a case exacted from the ' parient or from the patient's friends , a fee of £ 2 2 s . per month , so long as the case remained in the hospital . These regulations were a practical denial of relief to that particular class of patients , ancl the consequence had been that those thus excluded from the hospitals , contaminated othersand so propagated disease . Rules of a similar character

regu-, lated the relief afforded at the Bloomsbury Dispensary , and nowhere was the principle of free admission recognised . About that period , he being then a young man , was returning home late one evening from Bartholomew fair , when he found a poor sick girl on the steps of St . Andrew ' s Church , Holborn , in a dying state . Not having been able to get her into St . Bartholomew ' s Hospital at once , he had her taken care of for the night , and in the morning procured her a letter of admission into

that institution , where she died two days afterwards , without her name ever becoming known . That was the circumstance which had led him to endeavour to found the Royal Free Hospital , as it convinced him of the necessity which existed for such afl institution , that those sunk in depravity might not be permitted , un-cared for , to spread the seeds of disease , and that those who were destitute and in want of assistance might obtain it for the mere asking . The establishment of that institution had completely broken down the old exclusive system , for the other hospitals had gradually

relaxed their rules . That was in itself a great public advantage , and was sufficient if the establishment of the Royal Free Hospital had led to no other good , to satisfy the aspirations of its promoters ; but he found that it gave in the year relief to a larger number of patients than any similar institution in the metropolis , as they had only to walk in , state their complaint , and ask for medical or surgical treatment . At the time that the Hospital was opened , tlie College of Surgeons issued a circular , refusing to recognise any institution as a * Medical School , which had not a certain volume of atmosphere for each patient , and as its wards were not large enough to afford the number of cubic feet of atmosphere required by the College , the founders had been