LONDON CHARITIES TO THE FRENCH WAR FUND.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 895, 2 December 1871, Page 3

LONDON CHARITIES TO THE FRENCH WAR FUND.

Mr Herbert Ery, in his .annual preface to the " "Royal Guide to the London Charities" for 1871-2, reports : —" The disastrous effects of the Franco-German war may be traced in many of the returns made to me this year by some of the most important London charities. That terrible calamity has doubtless affected this nation injuriously in many respects; but it is most remarkable for having elicited an active sympathy from England towards the sick and disabled combatants, as well as towards the inhabitants of the provinces the war fiend traversed, which must be pronounced [altogether without precedent in the history of the world. England's gifts to Erance during her time of disaster and distress, will.is it believed, infinitely better show our entente cordiale than any display we could make as brothers-in-arms upon the Crimean or any other battle-field. The following are the chief of the Franco-German war funds: — National Society for Aid to Sick and Wounded, London, W.C., nearly £300,000 Mansion House Belief Fund for Non-combatants, Joseph Gibs, Esq., Hon. Secretary . . 125,920 Daily News French Peasants' Belief Fund, W. H. Bullock, Chief Distributor .... 21,679 Refugees' Benevolent Fund, F. Bennoch, Esq., Hon. Secretary . 19,428 French Peasant Farmers' Seed Fund (after deducting ,£13,000 voted from Mansion House Fund) . 29,661 War Victims' Fund, 86 Houndsditch, E.C. (exclusive of £14,000 from America and Canada, £IOOO from Mansion House, and £750 from Seed Fund). . . 69,931 German Association in Aid of Wounded and Destitute, Baron Schroder, President . . 40,968 Souscription Frangaise en Angleterre, M. Paxil Pierrard, Hon. Secretory .... 6,083 French Evangelical Society of Relief Rev. J. M. H. du Pontet de la Harpe .... 6,000 French "Wounded Fund, Dr Piesse . 4,964 Society for Clothing French Prisoners, 219 Regent street, T. W. Evans, Esq., M.D., Him. Sec. . 2,000 Colonial and Continental Church Society's Aid ... 683

£627,317

The above figures will account for the falling off, wherever it is to he observed, in the receipts of London charities. Many subscribers cannot afford to enlarge their gifts ; so when calamities, such as the late war, arise, they but transfer their guineas from the ordinary to the extraordinary claimants.

ENGLISHMEN LOST ON SWISS MOUNTAINS.

The "Swiss Times" reports that two young men, assistants in a druggist's shop in Thun, started lately to make the ascent of the Stockhorn, accompained by a guard, and had almost succeeded in reaching the summit, when one of them, in order to got a better view, ventured too near the edge of the precipice. The guide warned him not to go any closer as the grasp, from the recent rain which had fallen, was very slippery, but he answered that he was accustomed to climbing, and that there was no danger. Scarcely however, had he spoken before he slipped, and in his frantic attempts to save himself, seized his companion's ankle, who leaned forward hoping to arrest his friend's progress; but in making the attempt he lost his own footing, and the guide, who stood by, unable to render any assistance, for the whole affair was the work of a moment, saw the two friends roll over the edge of the precipice, clasped in each other's arms, and fall a distance of between 300 and 400 feet on the rocks below. Although without hope that either of them would be alive, the guide lost no time in descending the mountain and obtaining assistance, and after considerable difficulty, succeeded in reaching the spot where the two bodies lay. One,' of the unfortunate men was quite dead, having broken his neck in the fall, and the other had received such dreadful injuries that he died a short time afterwards.