THIRD READING. (Hansard, 21 June 1859)

§ MR. INGHAM
, Chairman of the Committee to which the Bill had been referred, urged that the delay caused by the appointment of a Commission of this kind at this period would be practically fatal to the Bill. The evidence before the Committee was comprehensive and satisfactory, showing that the proposed line was calculated greatly to relieve the traffic of the streets, and the Admiralty and the Board of Trade had both expressed opinions in its favour on the ground of its tendency to distribute the traffic.

§ MR. TITE
, as one of the governors of St. Thomas's Hospital, objected to this plan, as interfering with that institution. The proposed line started from the South Eastern terminus, passed through the Borough, and crossed the river to a terminus at Hungerford Market. The line passed within eight feet of one of the wards of the hospital, on a level as high as the second floor of the building, and it was the deliberate opinion of the medical officers of 435 the establishment, that if the railway carriages were constantly passing, that ward, and perhaps the whole of the hospital, would be useless as a receptacle for the sick poor. There were no less than 500 beds in the hospital, not one of which was at this moment unoccupied, which showed the value of the institution. In 1841 the South Eastern and Brighton Companies were desirous of improving their termini, and the hospital having given them every facility, the South Eastern agreed not to encroach further on their property; but that Company were the principal promoters of this scheme, and had contributed £300,000 to its capital.

§ COLONEL WILSON PATTEN
suggested the impropriety of this Motion at this stage of the Bill. If the Motion had been made on the second reading there might have been some reason for it; but the Bill having passed through Committee, it ought not to be made on the third reading.

§ SIR DE LACY EVANS
then withdrew his Motion.