The Board having maturely considered Dr. Bond's proposals are of opinion The Proposithey are totally inadmissible being in direct repugnance to the Rules of the tion rejected. Institution.

Two letters were received from Robert Morris, Esqr., the Financier General, Continental at a meeting held on December 3, 1783, relating to the above application made by Soldiers Dr. Bond, Jr., for the admission of a number of Sick Continental Soldiers. A admitted. Committee at the same meeting reported upon a conference they had with the Financier. Mr. Morris having acceded to the rules established in the Hospital, the Managers decided to receive such of the diseased Soldiers at fifteen shillings Per Week, provided bedding & cloathing be furnished for them and that they shall in all Instances be subject to and governed by the same Rules & Regulations as other Pay Patients.

1812.

Some years later, during the war with England of 1812-15, the Soldier Hospital was again called upon by the Military authorities for aid. Patients of The minutes of the Meeting of April 25, 1814, refer to a letter from Alexander Walker, Jr., Agent for British Prisoners, in which he stated that

he had paid for the Board of Wounded Prisoners Sent to the Hospital "certain Sums which Col. Barclay Com'g. General declines to refund" was received & read. The President is requested to return an answer to the said Letter and to inform Alexander Walker that this Institution is chiefly supported by private Contribution & the U. States do not contribute at all to its support. That the United States having no Marine Hospital in this district send their diseased Sailors to the Pennsylvania Hospital and pay for their Board regularly as a Matter of course & that although individuals who are strangers and destitute of Money and friends are frequently received maintained and relieved at the expence of the Hospital yet that in all Cases where there are private friends or Public Agents the Managers take Security from them and receive the price agreed for the support of the Patients.

On January 5, 1780, upon making up the account for 1777, it Hospital was found that the Hospital had become indebted to a number of the again in Debt. Managers and other private citizens, for various sums of money loaned during the term of British occupation. These sums aggregated £1104 128. 3d. To cancel this indebtedness, the Managers were compelled, by assigning several bonds and mortgages, to cripple the finances, which were already in a state of great depletion, on account of the depreciation of paper money and unsettled condition of the

currency.

On January 20, 1780, the Assembly was memorialized for further Appeal to the assistance in the financial emergency. In this document the recent Assembly.

military experience was referred to, as follows:

Certain Contingencies and unfortunate Circumstances, in the present War concurred in reducing the Capital, augmenting the common Expenses and involving the Institution in Debt. First-The Laws compelling the Managers to give up their Securities for Monies lent and receiving in lieu thereof depreciated paper Currency. Secondly-The British Army, invading the City possessing themselves of the Hospital, occasioning the suspension of Paper Currency within their

Managers'
Fines.

Lines, raising the price of Provisions and necessitating the Managers to borrow Gold to support the Lunatics and to supply the Apothecary Shop and several of the Wards with those Articles, which by their means were lost or destroyed. Thirdly-By the continued depreciation of the Currency which the Treasurer is from time to time obliged to receive for Interest of the Capital Stock or for Rents and the consequent exorbitant charges of Housekeeping.

The rule relative to fines to be imposed on the Managers for non-attendance, or for lateness, it seems, had not recently been enforced, and a minute on August 8, 1782, states:

The necessity increasing of the Managers punctually attending to the Duties of their appointed Meetings-it is determined that every Member who shall be absent longer than fifteen minutes after the stated hour of the Board's Monthly, or adjourned, Meetings shall pay to John Morton, who is appointed to collect the same, a fine of one shilling. And for total absence during such Meetings 2/6, unless prevented by Sickness.

The book of fines was kept by the clerk and is shown in the following exhibit of the accounts of two prominent members:

The confidence and sympathy of the Assembly of Pennsylvania

at this time was shown by a resolution adopted December 28, 1781, as follows:

Assembly Resolved, That the money arising from fines paid by Members of the House approve the for not attending pursuant to adjournment, &c., be paid to the Treasurer of the Management. Pennsylvania Hospital for the use thereof.

This grant of the Assembly was received by the Managers in 1782, and amounted to £2. 12s. 6d. State money and £31. 16s. 4d. specie, as stated in the Hospital financial report for year ending April 26, 1782.

a Loan.

Nathaniel Falconer represents, that in Compliance with the desire of the last Grant of Board, he applied to the Comptroller's Office, to know whether the account Assembly exhibited by the Hospital for Money due from the supreme executive Council was alleged to be examined, and he was informed by the Comptroller that the Sum of ten thousand Pounds continental Money received by this Institution in the months of March, April & May, 1780, stood charged against the Hospital, as so much lent by the Assembly-which being contrary to what he conceived, was understood by the Managers, it was deemed necessary to call this Meeting.

Whereupon the following action was taken :

The Board taking the same into their serious Consideration, and finding on perusing the Memorial presented on the 20th of the first month, 1780, to the honorable house of Assembly that it prayed for a pecuniary aid to the distressed situation of the Hospital; and the said 10,000 was by the Treasurer credited in his Accounts as a grant, from this State, not as a loan, it's judged expedient to address the Assembly thereon, requesting the honorable House will be pleased to consider it as a Donation.

A memorial was accordingly prepared and sent

To the Honorable the Representatives of the Freemen of the Commonwealth Petition of of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met. Managers to The Memorial of the Managers of the Pennsylvania Hospital, Respectfully Assembly. Sheweth,

That their predecessors in Office were under the necessity of applying in the Year 1780 to your honourable House for such “Aids as might extricate them from their Difficulties by discharging the Hospital debts, restoring the Capital Stock, and enabling the Managers to prosecute the laudable purposes of the Institution."

That in consequence of this application the Assembly were pleased to direct an order to issue bearing date the 27th of March, 1780, in favor of the Hospital for ten thousand Pounds continental Money, which was received and considered by the Managers as a gift, entered as such in their Books, and soon disposed of in the necessary Expenses of the House.

That your Memorialists unexpectedly, and with great concern find, that the above Sum stands recorded on your minutes as a Loan; and that they are liable to be called on for the repayment of the same.

Your Memorialists therefore are obliged to solicit the Indulgent Attention of your Honourable House on this occasion, confidently hoping you will be pleased to order the above Claim to be relinquished. They beg leave at the same time to observe, that the same cause, which produced the former Memorial still exists with equal force-and that the Pennsylvania Hospital now stands in the greatest need of support, public as well as private.

PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL, 3d mo, 6th, 1783.

The Committee also prepared the following "brief view," for Brief View the Assembly, which proved successful and the claim was remitted.

to be presented.