The Press.
London, England, 1858-07-31 00:00:00

THE LATE LUNACY CASE.

TIIE late lamentable case of Mrs. TURNER is a
curious instance of charity beginning abroad.
Not, however, that it is by any means a solitary
one. There is a large section of what we rather
vaguely term the middle classes, who when
thrown upon a bed of sickness are unable to pro-
cure medical attendance nearly so good as that
which is to be found in the hospitals which their
own liberality supports. Such are the superior
advantages which organization and systematic
supervision are certain to bring with them, with-
out which the most affectionate intentions and
even the most lavish outlay are frequently
wasted.

None of our readers can have perused the re-
ports of, we cannot say the extraordinary inquiry,
for we believe similar cases of brutality, though
not brought to light, occur daily, but we will
say of the distressing disclosures which have
been made during the present week relative
to the treatment received by Mrs. TURNER at the
hands of Mr. METCALFE, the manager and pro-
prietor of a private lunatic asylum, without
feeling the deepest commiseration for the
unhappy sufferer. We believe, therefore, that this
is not an inopportune moment for calling public
attention to the inadequate provision which
at present exists for securing to members of
the middle classes suffering from insanity
such treatment as would be most likely to
conduce to their recovery, and at the same
time afford them a safe guard against improper
detention in asylums. Pauper lunatics are
placed in institutions built and maintained at the
expense of the several counties. The medical
men and attendants are paid fixed salaries, and
the internal economy of each asylum is under the
immediate control of a committee of magistrates,
selected by the Court of Quarter Sessions from
the whole magistracy of the county. Now, none
of these parties can be in the slightest degree
benefited by detaining a patient in the asylum
a moment longer than is absolutely necessary.
To the medical superintendent it is a matter of
credit that he should cure as many patients as he
can ; and the magistrates who visit the institu-
tion at least once in each week, to hear com-
plaints, and to watch over its management, are,
of course, only too glad to free the ratepayers
from the charge of maintaining a pauper
the moment he is capable of maintain-
ing► himself. Now, let us look how the
rich man fares in a private asylum, or
retreat, as these places are poetically called
by their proprietors, lie is placed there
very possibly at the instance of interested rela-
tions, by whom a liberal sum is annually paid to
the proprietor so long as the victim remains in
his clutches. What opportunities has he for com-
plaining of maltreatment ? Save at the chance
visits of the Lunacy Commissioners, he sees only
his keepers and quarterly visitors ; the latter in
the form of two or three neighbouring magis-
trates and a medical practitioner, whose notions
on the proper treatment of lunatics have, in all
probability, not far travelled beyond the old
scourge and strait-waistcoat school of their
childhood. These gentlemen, moreover, having
but little power and no hand in the management
of these houses, do only what the law absolutely
compels them to do ; while in many instances the
proprietor even does not reside at his asylum, and
we find one medical man, with a large private prac-
tice, living and practising in the neighbourhood
of Oxford-street, and at the same time owning
two private asylums in the neighbourhood of
Fulham. When Mr. TITE brings forward his
motion on the subject next session, we most sin-
cerely trust that the matter will be thoroughly
looked into ; also that the opinions of others
besides professional men will be taken on this

lie

question. When the keepersof private asylum,
are so jealous of all visitation of their bowies
that, as we know to be the case, even the medical
superintendents of county establishments are not
permitted to go over them or see the inmates,we
cannot help thinking that something must be
wrong.

JESUITISM.
THE stronghold of religion in all times, and
among all nations, has been in the heart of
the common people. It is there that the great
truths of natural law, and there that the dogmas
of a real or a supposed revelation, have their
deepest and most impregnable seat. The natural
religiousness of mankind is the reason why all
great revolutions have been, more or less, the
result of moral and religious causes. The easy
corruption of religion into superstition is the
reason why religions, once organized, easily grow
into engines of State polity.
Our natural self-complacency keeps us from
remembering that " the thing which hath been
" is that which shall be," and that what is now
" hath been already of old time." Great as has
been, great as is likely to be, the intellectual
progress of the word, morally man is now, sad
morally man will ever continue to be, just what
he was at the fall of ADAM—eager and ambitious
to acquire, still more eager and ambitious the
more he has acquired. And, as ambition grows
with might, master and slave, soldier and serf,
become in rude times the normal relationship of
man to man. In the progress of events, how-
ever, and from the universal aptitude for super-
stition, craft and knowledge come to divide with
might the masterdom of what has become pro-
prietary mankind. The priest shares with the
soldier the profits and the honours of ownership
and cultivation.

It requires no great sagacity to see that men
in the mass were likely to gain but little from
such co-partnership ; especially if there be mixed
up with the religion which is adopted so much of
really Divine truth as to give a healthful savour
to the human ordinance itselt. What is called
the conversion of CONSTANTINE was not only s
heavy blow to true Christianity; it was not only
a crushing aggression upon rising Europe; it wan
a conspiracy by which a sacerdotal caste was to
divide sovereignty over peoples with the powers
legitimately ordained, a conspiracy to organise
and regenerate steady obstructions to all human
progress in the joint interests of despotism and
superstition.

It would seem, then, a mistake to think that
Jesuitism took its first rise with LOYOLA. It was
only the machinery that was a new invention in
the system which beautiful GIULIA BORGIAS
Cardinal, ALLESSANDRO FARNESE, embodied and
canonized as PAUL 111. Jesuitism in its elements
is simply the sinister application of religion to
political
_purposes. Whatever uses religion sys-
tematically in the interests of a governing caste
or class, as a means to degrade political society,
is Jesuitism ; and the beginnings of Jesuitism in
Christendom were earlier even than CONSTANTINE.
They were, indeed, rude and clumsy, but auda-
cious ; perhaps all the more prosperous and more
durable because so rude and so audacious. Still
it is hardly too much to say that the foundation of
the whole actual politico-ecclesiastical system of
Continental Europe was laid by CoNsTar.-Ttsc.
CHARLEMAGNE was another mighty master of the
art ; but he was to Comsrrayrnix only what
BRAMANTE was to MICHAEL ANGELO. Little
credit however is due to either for the durability
of their great work. The principles of the Jesuit
or Papal scheme, as they then began to be agreed
upon, were the discovery of no one or two indi-
v►duals.. Step by step they were the gradual
developments of one stupendous falsehood, .1°
divinum, taken for a truth, supported and propa-
gated for a truth by all the brute force of military
despotisms and all the spiritual agency of schools
and universities, of the pulpit and the confer'

human reason was as little able to con-
tend successfully with such a falsehood, so
organized, so allied, so officered, and so propa-
ated, as arguments are able to contend success-
Tully with wind and storm, or helpless childhood
to triumph over full-grown villainy.
The system became " the hammer of the
whole earth." It worked on age after age ; in-
deed it works on still. Kings consented to have
their own hands tied up by ROME rather than
let the training of their people be left free in
honest native hands. And ROME yielded a large
return from her usurped tutorage. She broke
down the force of public conscience and the sen-
timent of common fellowship, and she made the
moral corruption of the upper classes and the
political degradation of the common people keep
pace with the exigencies of despotism and the
wastefulness of her own exchequer.
But the price which kings had to pay for their
share in the profits of jus divinum was greater
than they had counted. Into this department of
our subject we propose to enter on a subsequent
occasion.

THE MEMBER'S DIARY.

HOUSE OF LORDS.
MONDAY.

THE " right of search " in time of peace, for
the suppression of the slave trade, has never
been claimed by England towards vessels belong-
ing to the United States. Lord LYNDHURST
argued to-night that England had never possessed
even the "right of visitation," but only exer-
cised it—with such ill consequences that he rejoiced
to find the practice had been abandoned. He
asked for some correspondence on the subject,
wishing to know when that abandonment took
place, and what arrangements had been effected to
prevent slave-ships defying the British cruisers by
a surreptitious display of the Stars and Stripes.
Lord ABERDEEN, discovering that the transaction
was considered creditable, put in his claim for
half the glory of having repudiated both the
right and the practice of " visiting " American
ships. It was all settled, he said, long since, by
a despatch he had himself written in 1842; and
any recent complaint of " so-called British out-
rages " could have only arisen from the over-
zeal of British commanders. Lord MALMESBURY,

with regard to future means of stopping the
illegal traffic, stated that the United States had
undertaken to ascertain the nationality of vessels
hoisting their colours. Each nation, in fact, was
to watch over its own flag.
A trial, which made much noise in the artistic
world some months since, had proved that paint-
ers enjoyed none of the copyright protection
accorded to the writer of a book, the modeller of
an architectural ornament, or even the designer
of a pattern for printed calico. If any of these
"works of art " were plagiarized or imitated, the
copyist was punishable by law ; but no penalty
was incurred by copying a picture, even though
the resemblance to the original had been carried
to the extent of producing a facsimile of the
artist's signature on the canvas. This default
in the law had remained unnoticed by the Legis-
lature until Lord LYNDHURST took up the ques-
tion, obtaining from the Government a Select
Committee (which was nominated on the spot)
to determine how the defect could be best cured.

Lord Wtomow was displeased that the Special
Services Bill, after passing that llouse, had
dropped through "elsewhere." He challenged
the Bishop of LONDON as having had some hand
In this abortive result of their legislative efforts,
and censured the Right Rev. Prelate still more
heavily because he had not set the law in motion
to stop the services at Exeter-hall. The Metro-
politan disclaimed all responsibility for anything
that happened or could happen in the Commons;
and with regard to Exeter-hall explained that
when two parties had both claimed to have the
law on their aide, he had not felt called upon to
interfere with the appeal that either might think
it right to make to the proper legal tribunal.