Mr. FESSENDEN. The difficulty, if there is any, about these matters, arises from the fact that these bills come to us at the very last moments of the session, necessaril precluding us from the possibility of makingt ie examination of them which we should be very glad to make, and we therefore have to rely on the previous examination made by the ComWays&Means. Where the items are according to the estimates, we can look at them and see if they are the amounts estimated for by the evernl depts. If they are estimated by the several)Depts, and we find every thin correct a parently, and the Committee on ays and cans, who have had the getting up of the bill, recommend them, it is not in our power to go over and make a reexamination. They send us the papers which th examined; but there is no time to go throng them all. The difficulty arises from the fact that this bill is put off to the end of the session. It is a sort of omnibus bill; it gathers up all the ends and odds, and necessarily passes, and I am afraid sometimes with material defects in it. In regard to this hospital, we find the appropriation for it here in the bill. It comes from the ComWays&Means of the House, This proviso is a very peculiar one: “that if the said property should ever be sold or diverted from the uses expressed in the act of Congress entitled ‘An act to incor porate Providence hospital, of the city of Vashington, DistCol, approved April 8, 1864, then the sum of $30,000 shall be 1st paid out of the proceeds thereof into the U.S. Treasu, to reimburse the sum hereby appropriated.’ We examined the act of incorporation to see what those “uses” were, and there were no “uses” at all; it was simply an act incorporating certain r sons as trustees of Providence hospital. but was all there was of it. We had no plans; we had no estimates; there seemed to be no conditions; we did not know what Providence hospital was to cost, or anything about it, and could not tell. Our conclusion, therefore, was and perhaps it is the wisest conclusion, and one the Senate will adopt now; it is for them to say that we should strike out the clause and at any rate wait until the next session and see what ought to be done. After that conclusion of ours, the principals of the Sisters of Charity came, and when the objection was stated to them they said they had already marked out the ground, they had their plans, they had begun to build, and the building would cost $60,000. There was a little peculiarity in the statement that I am afraid I cannot exactly state; but the idea was that the building proper was to cost $45,000, and the additional $15,000 was for something else, I do not know what exactly, connected with it, so that in renlit we were to pay 2/3rds, as I understood, of the actual cost of the building. These ladies applied to a majority of the committee, out of the committee room, and they concluded to let it go, by putting in the proviso which I have offered, which guards against certain things. If it is to be followed u, as my colleague states, by propositions to endow other hospitals at the same time, I think we may as well stop somewhere with regard to these thin s, and cannot be properly called upon to endow all the charitable institutions of the city. I under stood it was the only hospital there was in the city; it was so stated to me. What has been done in regard to incorporating others at this session I have not noticed.