Star.
London, England, 1809-04-15 00:00:00

r the beauty of Chelsea Hospital he should most strenu-
ously deprecate. That building he considered as a
splendid monument of the benevolence and a gratifi-
cation to the pride of the country. It furnished ac-
commodation to the old, and encouragement to the
young soldier; and therefore every friend to the
army must be anxious to preserve it unimpaired.
Certainly, nothing that could tend in the remotest
degree to reduce, its comforts ought to be even risked
fur such a sum as fifty-two pounds a year. Blithe
hoped the evil complained of would be removed, as
he was gl.id to hear it intimated from the Treasury
Bench. (Here there was an apparent expression of a ne-
gative.) The Honourable Officer proceeded—Nei-
ther the receipt of rent, however considerable, nor the
merit of any Officer England ever saw, however dis-
tinguished, should reconcile him to any grant likely
to interfere with the comforts of the meritorious body

who occupy Chelsea Hospital. The Honourable
Officer concluded with stating, that he should be
happy to find that the papers would justify the con-
fident language of the Right Hon. Gentleman who
spoke last ; but if not, he declared his intention to
support the Honourable Baronet in his motion for
bringing the Surveyors and the Medical Gentlemen
of the Hospital to the Bar, to be examined upon this
subject.

Mr. ROSE defended the disposition of the lands,
objected to by the Honourable Mover.
Mr. BIDDULPH was glad that the attention of
the House had been called to this subject, because it
must Le productive of one good effect—that it will
induce Gentlemen to look into the provisions of the
Act of the 34th of the King, under which the dispo-
sition alluded to took place. In his opinion, a much
m're beneficial arrangement than that Act prescribed
might be provided to regulate the disposal of crown
lands. That Act was originally introduced upon
the alledged ground of guarding against the influence
of the Crown ; but it appeared to him, that there was
still left quite scope enough for that influence to ope-
rate. The land was never advertised, and the bar-
gains were close. Now, instead of such a mode of
proceeding, he would have the land advertised, take
the Surveyor's report, and then sell the land by pub-
lic auction. This struck his mind as a much more
beneficial plan for managing the crown lands than
that which was now pursued.
Sir FRANCIS BURDETT expressed a hope that
he should experience the indulgence of the House
while he took some notice of the allusions which the
Right Hon. Gentleman on the other side (the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer) had thought proper to
make to his general conduct. Those allusions were
so foreign to the question before the House and so ir-
regular in other points of view, that he really should
have hoped that the eye of the Chairman would have
caught that of the Right Hon. Gentleman, and
checked him in his high career, when imputing im-
proper motives to the conduct of any Member. This
observation he made, he could assure the Right Hon.
Gentleman, without any feeling of that indignant
warmth which appeared to actuate him. Arrogance
might be imputed to him for pronouncing any opi-
nion upon the subject of the building referred to,
without inquiring about the reports of the architects
and surveyors. But if he had incurred such an im-
putation before, he feared that still more arrogance
would be imputed when he said, that after hearing
all that had been said explanatory of the reports, so
much relied upon by the Gentlemen on the other
side, he continued to retain the same opinion. The
Right Hon. Gentleman became, he perceived, quite
angry when he talked about attaching a feeling of
suspicion to the whole conduct of Ministers. For
himself he was ready to say, that he should be sorry
for the existence of such a feeling if undeserved—but
from experience he mt4t say, that he was highly
glad to see that such a feeling prevailed, because
he thought that it rested upon good grounds, and
that the public mind had been too long deceived.—
One Right Honourable Defender of the transaction
to which his motion referred, had stated, that the
ground sold 4) Colonel Gordon was Irak to build
upon. Now, he would ask that Right Honourable
Gentleman, how came it that if this ground was fit
for the building of Colonel Gordon, why not for that
of Chelsea Hospital ? As to the report of the physi-
cians, it was impossible, he thought, that they could
consider an Infirmary, occupying in the whole not
more than a quarter of an acre of ground, as benefit-
ted, or rather as uninjured, by a wall eight feet high,
built in such a position as to interrupt the free circu-
lation of air. Sure he was, that no man of common
sense could subscribe to the opinion. But that such an
institution slit uld be subjected to such an inconvenience
for the paltry consideration of £52 a-year, the idea was
intolerable. He would rather pay that sum out of his
own pocket, than suffer such a grievance, th allow it
to exist, if it were only to prevent a magni public
edifice from being deformed, much less to preserve the
comforts of a meritorious bcdy of veterans. Among
those who attempted to argue againsthim he could not
help noticing the hyberbole oftheHon.Secretary( Hus-
kisson ) in his allusion to slave ships. Now, having said
nothing whatever to warrant such an allusion, it was
therefore quite misrepresentation, and such misrepre-
sentation of an opponent's atgument, always furnishes
a presumption that the person using it is wrong.
After describing the situation of the ground upon
which Colonel Gordon was preparing to build, the
Honourable Baronet said, that he knew many
Gentlemen who would, he had no doub-, be ready
to give 110,000 for such scite. With regard to the ,
remarks of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that he
looked at the whole conduct of Ministers with a
jaundiced eye, he assured the Right Hon. Gentleman
that, on the contrary, he had no wish whatever to
hamper or to supersede them. He had said often
elsewherewhat he would then repeat, thathe thought
them even as good Ministers under the present sys-
tem as any other set of Gentlemen he knew were
likely to make. But still he looked at them with
jealousy, as he would at any Ministers, and that
jealousy was the natural result of the conviction upon
his mind, that the public interests had not for many
Years back been attended to as they ought. When
the Right Honourable Gentleman expressed his ap-
-1 prehension that if this ground had not been let, he 1
I was such a captious person, that probably he would
have brought forward a complaint against Ministers'
for being ..,0 improvident, he would appeal to the
Hoti‘o, whciber he had manifested any disposition
to Nl nrrint such an apprehension—whether, in fact,
he hid ever been in the habit of bringing forward
' such motions ? He should. ftel much better pleased