§ MR. SEXTON (Belfast, W., and Sligo, S.)said, he wished to ask the Government what course they would pursue in reference to the Belfast Royal Hospital? The board of management had forwarded a Memorial on the subject of the strain on their means owing to the late riots; and he was sure the Government would deal liberally with 1773 the demand for aid. The Belfast Royal Hospital was entirely supported by voluntary contributions, and had never received Government assistance; but the recent riots had made an extraordinary demand upon the resources of the institution, for, for weeks and weeks, wounded persons—some wounded by the rioters, others by the forces of the Crown—were continually brought in. Already there was a deficit in the accounts for the year, and the Governors would have been entitled to close their doors to the afflicted on the ground that they had no money to carry on the work. However, in a humane and public spirit these gentlemen opened their wards to 369 victims of gunshot and other wounds. The careful treatment given to these was in most cases successful. Deaths had been prevented, and families saved from much sorrow, and the area of destitution greatly limited. This was a case of great magnitude. At the time of the riots the funds of the hospital were some £300 behind, and now this deficit was increased to £1,100. If this £800 were made good the Governors would be enabled to meet the ordinary admission of wounded and sick. Before their dependeme was always on voluntary subscriptions; but owing to the general depression in business the subscribers were unable to increase the amounts of their gifts. Hence he saw nothing for it but for the Government, if it did not intend to be parsimonious, to help to save the Governors from the necessity of closing the hospital's doors. The Government allowed about £15,000 a-year to certain hospitals in Dublin, and about £8,000 to Government hospitals. He did not suggest a redistribution of these grants; but he did think that an emergency grant of £800 to the Belfast institution by the Government should be made.
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Lord RANDOLPH CHURCHILL) (Paddington, S.)said, the question was entirely new to him, for he had seen nothing of the Memorial from the Governors of the hospital to which allusion had been made. That Memorial would not come before him necessarily; but he would undertake, in conjunction with the Chief Secretary and the Attorney General for Ireland, to go carefully into the circumstances of the case. He was 1774 not willing that the hon. Member should have the chance of bringing, with any show of justice, a charge of parsimony in this case against the Government. The hon. Member, he believed, did not ask for an annual grant—[MR. SEXTON: Nothing of the kind.]—but an exceptional and special grant. [MR. SEXTON: Hear, hear!] Well, that being the case, if it was the opinion of the Authorities in Ireland that a special grant should be made from the Treasury to this hospital on account of the expense it was put to in consequence of the riots, he, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, should throw no difficulty in the way of that being done.