ST. KATHARINE'S HOSPITAL.
SINECURES are not necessarily evil things, and for ourselves, we could only wish that England had a good many to be- stow upon those who have toiled long and ably for the general good, but whose labours have not yielded any considerable balance at their bankers'. The hard-worker might have an old-age sine- cure with general approval, but it would never be righteous to appropriate in his interests revenues which were held in trust for other and distinctly specified purposes. Still less would it be lawful and right to take a portion of goods which has been be- queathed for special and local interests in order to make comfort- able "Jock, the laird's brother," who may have done nothing towards the welfare of the community, and of whom no future
public service is expected. In the course of a morning's walk in the Regent's Park, the pedestrian will stumble on a remarkable specimen of this kind of sinecure. He will find there a church, a spacious master's house, residences for three ladies and three gentlemen, with accommodation for the day education of some fifty or sixty boys and girls. And should he ask what this institution is, he might be not a little surprised to learn that it represents the ancient" Royal Hospital of St. Katharine near the Tower ;" and that this, with the gift of £10 a year each, to forty pensioners, is all there is to show for an annual income which was valued in 1865 at 27,000, and which it is calculated may reach the yearly sum of 215,000. St. Katharine's Hospital was founded by Queen Matilda in 1148, "for the glory .of God, and the edification of the poor inhabitants living round the Tower of London." It consisted of a master and three brethren in holy orders, who were daily to perform divine service ; of three 'sisters, who were specially to visit the sick in the neighbourhood ; of six poor scholars, and ten poor women ; while, by a later charter, considerable alms were to be given to the poor.
With a church attached to it, the Hospital for nearly 700 years wrought great good among the seafaring and poor population round the Power; but in 1828, by an extraordinary turn of the Saint's wheel, it was removed from the neighbourhood to make room for St. Katharine's Docks, and it was planted in the Regent's Park,—altogether the wrong place for it. In conse- quence of the death of the late master, her Majesty, who is patron of the Hospital, has been memorialised by the clergy and churchwardens of the East of London in behalf of the claims of the neighbourhood for the benefit of which the institution was originally founded. Her Majesty has graciously replied that, in accordance with precedent, she has called on the Lord Chan- cellor to frame rules for the future administration of St. Katharine's, and we can only give expression to our earnest hope that the scheme to be ultimately adopted will give back to the East of London the funds of which it has been deprived, and where such valuable aid might be given either in assisting the Society for home nursing of the sick poor, in providing a higher middle-class education for both boys and girls, or in permanently augmenting the income of some of the livings the endowment of which is scandalously small.
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