MR. FITZROYsaid, he wished to put a question to the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State for the Home Department in reference to the statements recently made as to the alleged ill-treatment of the patients in Bethlehem Hospital, and to the reports of the inquiry thereunto, which had appeared in a morning journal, and also to ask whether he would have any objection to lay on the table of the House a copy of the Report made by the Commissioners who conducted the inquiry in question?
§ MR. WALPOLEsaid, the Commissioners' Report was communicated to him in the summer, and in consequence of the nature of that Report he felt it his duty to 129 send to the Governors of the Hospital to know what observations they had to make upon it. He should think it his duty to lay the Report, with their observations, on the table of the House, in order that Parliament might consider and determine the course proper to be taken. Those observations he had pressed for from time to time, and he had been informed that they would be sent. They had, however, not yet come; and without them he did not think it exactly fair towards the Governors of the Hospital to lay the Report upon the table. He thought it only right that those who were implicated by the inquiry should have an opportunity of stating their case.