[_Endorsed:_ "Let the president and auditors and the archbishop state
what they think best to be done in the case; and in the meantime
let them give such orders as they think best for the good conduct of
the hospital."]

Considering and reflecting that the royal hospital of this city is
one of the most important and considerable establishments in this
country and these islands, it is very essential to the same, for the
best advantage and comfort of the poor, and for the good order and
system of the administration of the hospital, that it should be under
the charge of persons who are influenced by the love of God and by
zeal for His service and for the welfare and advantage of His poor,
and by no payment or temporal interest. Since all the other hospitals
of this city have this advantage, it is a pity that it should be
lacking in this one alone, which is of so much importance; and that
although it has so good an income and other advantages, it should not
surpass the others; and that there should be cause that many refuse to
go to it to be cared for, and prefer to go elsewhere. That is proof
of either carelessness and disorder, or of necessity; and, although
there is some of the latter, yet I believe that it must be mainly the
former. Likewise it spends and requires on its part certain salaries
and expenses for persons who serve in the said hospital. Great injury
is done to the service of God our Lord and of his Majesty the king,
if such an institution is managed extravagantly, ineffectively, or
unsystematically. At the same time other hospitals are well managed,
because of being in the hands of persons who are members of religious
orders and servants of our Lord; who being free and bare from personal
interest, exert themselves for the good of the poor, merely for His
love and service, and with charity and zeal for the good of their