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trial. At any rate I hope for a solution of the difficulty, and of
all similar difficulties, as the outcome of the enquiry conducted by
the Hospitals Commission. Meanwhile it is a curious result
of the injunction that the majority of the cases of small-pox
occurring in the Borough (they have been very few in number),
and other portions of the west district have had to be transported
many miles to one or other of the Managers' Hospitals in the
eastern and south - western districts — a course against which
the sanitary authorities of those districts have bitterly complained,
and not altogether without reason. Those other hospitals, however,
are situated in localities where much of the property is of a
comparatively poor character, there being no wealthy proprietors
or residents to take up the cudgels against the Managers, to which
cause alone, probably, they may attribute their exemption hitherto
from further litigation.
THE HAMPSTEAD HOSPITAL CASE.
In my last Annual Report I referred to the failure of the
Managers of the Asylums Board in respect of their Appeal No. 2
to the House of Lords for a reversal of the injunction restraining
them from using the Hampstead Hospital for the reception of
cases of infectious disease, and stated that the decision of the
House would probably have the effect, of closing the Hospital
permanently, and of encouraging aggrieved persons to persevere
in attempts to shut up other hospitals. As a matter of fact,
the decision did have the latter effect, as it was quickly followed
by the commencement of those proceedings to close Fulham
Hospital to which reference has just been made. In the
same Report I also referred to the decision of the Managers to
persevere in the "Appeal No. 1," viz. for a new trial of the cause
without the condition attached by the Court of Appeal below in
granting a new trial, viz., that the Managers should pay a large
portion of the Plaintiffs' costs, a decision arrived at by the
casting vote of the Chairman, Dr. Brewer, who did not live to
see the important result of that vote. Appeal No. 1 was heard
during the current Session, and in May the House delivered
judgment in favour of the Managers — reversing the judgment
of the Court below with costs both in the Appeal and in the Court