The Press.
London, England, 1858-09-04 00:00:00

THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 4, 1858.

pass of the nation, and then to extend Chris-
tianity till it has become the religion of all
mankind.

THE LUNACY QUESTION.

Tom►, inquiry, which has just finished, on poor
Mr. RUCK, and the one, which took place not
long ago, on the state of mind of Sir HmutY
Mix; surely, if they teach any lesson, ought to
teach this one—viz, that matters of this descrip-
tion are not fitted to meet the public eye.
Moreover they suggest the question, whether,
with equal protection to those unhappy persons
who fall under this kind of calamity, it may not
be possible to devise some mode of inquiry, which
shall save the individual and his family from the
sad exposure of most afflicting domestic occur-
rences, the publication of which only serves to
gratify the prurient appetite of those who can
amuse themselves with such painful revelations.

No one can have read the proceedings in the
case of Mr. RucK, without being of opinion that
his unhappy wife was placed in a very cruel
position. Conscious of being innocent of the
slightest indiscretion, she was constantly charged,
by her husband, to herself and to others, with
the vilest and most abandoned conduct She was
consequently in a position in which the more
she loved her husband, the more she was bound
to hope and to believe that he was under insane
delusions. The force of those delusions could
come home to none, in the way they came home
to her. She knew that he was believing what
she knew to be utterly false, and she therefore
knew that he was insane, and, as became an affec-
tionate and loving wife, she took measures to
put him in a place where his malady would be
properly treated, in the fond hope that it might
be the means of cure. No reasonable person can
blame Mrs. Rucx for the course which she took :
that she did take it when she did, it is now owing
that the jury have been able to pronounce a
verdict, which has placed her husband again at
liberty. Had he never been deprived of his
liberty, and had he never been subject to medical
treatment, he would inevitably have become in-
curably insane. Had this inquiry not taken
place, in all probability, in a few months, Mr.
RUCK would have been pronounced sane, and
might have rejoined his wife, and lived on with
her in happiness.

But what is now the state of Mr. RUCK and his
family, after the long public investigation, which
has given to both parties the most painful of no-
torieties ? If Mr. RUCK is sane, and continue
so, can he feel towards his wife as he felt before ?
Will a man easily forgive being brought before a
public tribunal, and all the disgraceful utterances
of his diseased mind being dragged into the light
of day ? Had the confession that he knew that
he had had delusions been spontaneous, and been
m ade within the walls of an asylum, he would
then have been allowed to rejoin his wife, and
there need not have been any disruption of affec-
tion between them : but, to say nothing of the
husband's feelings, what value can the wife set
upon the acknowledgment of delusions, and dis-
claimers of the most insulting accusations, made,
not of his own free will and accord, but made
(as it is quite clear he well knew) as a means of
obtaining the verdict which he wanted? What
security has Mrs. RUCK that he would be a single
day in the house with her without his reiterating
the same charges ? The restoration of domestic
happiness, after what has taken place, is there-
fore perfectly hopeless for Mr. Rum And, as
to the solace to be derived from the society of
friends and neighbours, that is gone too.
Wherever poor Mr. Rucx appears, the question
which each individual who sees him will invo-

luntarily ask himself is, "Is he sane? ne
am I not, in the company of a mtulman r
verdict of a jury ctn. replace pocoarnArlerp.lßate'
mrs'-
the positisk to which he 'night have been re
tat
atioYed, had not this unhappy publicity been giren
to his ease. Nothing, hkeiise,
Rucx in the position in which she would hare
been, had not these insane imaginations of her
husband about herself been given to the world.
As a Contemporary re ins!ked, during the progress.
of the the main issue to be decided is,
whether Mrs. It ucK was, or was not, guilty of the
vite deeds with which her husband charged her?
Now, however innocent or blameless a woman
may really be, she never can stand exactly in the
same position as if such an issue had never been
raised.
So far, then, as private good is concerned, and
so far as the happiness of the family itself is
concerned, no demon of discord could have
invented a process, more calamitous for their
interests, or more torturing to their feelings. It
is impossible, then, not to ask, Is this process
really reciuired for the public good ? Is it neces-
sary for the well-being of the social system that
that which every well-disposed member of a
family would wish to conceal from the light of day,
should be brought under its broadest glare ? For
what constitutes public good ? Is not public
good an aggregate of private good ? and bow
can public well-being be increased by producing
private misery ?

nvei
nes ,
art
verywe horrible
a madhouse
l tuhee
dh
at b en
dtos I
ibreu
et
agree,t;
most
saout:
ectahr ys saneta vrgmoenn outrageagtn,lsahvloe: urusy wicked,
uap nrp
prevented
vti
readily admit that some circumstances have
recently come to light to show that although in
this point the improvement which has taken
place in the last fifty years is beyond calculation.
yet that still something remains to be done to
remove blots from the existing system. No doubt
a more efficient course of inspection than now
exists ought to be adopted ; but when we bear of
proposals to give increased publicity in all com—
a publicityunnecessary wholly to secure the one
single object—viz., improper confinement of
persons who ought to be free, we really tremble
at the certain misery, of untold extent, which
must ensue from the adoption of such a course.
In the recent case of Mr. RucK, if it be necessary
that a jury should be called in to pronounce a
verdict, what public advantage can povibly
accrue from the proceedings being earned on in
open court ? Would not the jury have been
equally well able to decide—and just as likely to
decide fairly—if the investigation had been con-
ducted in a quiet way, without all the parapher-
nalia of a public trial?
But if such public investigations are neceagary
to decide the state of a man's mind, why are they
not necessary for all ? Why are they only neces-
sary for persons possessed of a sufficiently large
property to excite the cupidity of relations, and
to defray the enormous expenses ? But, if all
the lunatics in the kingdom are to have the
benefit (?) of a writ de lunatico inquirendo, by
what sort of machinery are those inquiries to he
carried out ? The thing is neither desirable nor
possible, and why the unhappy possessors of
property are alone to have this fearful infliction
fastened on them, of having all their follies Bald
vices, and delusions paraded before the public
gaze, it is impossible to give any satisfactory
reason.
It is all very well to talk of Magna Charta,
and the Habeas Corpus Act, but they have really
nothing to do with the matter. What is wantial,
is a more efficient inspection of private asylum
than exists at present, and in disputed cases S°Me
.
machinery should be established for their •
.
been"
brought quietly before a jury, without their
being paraded before the world,
which
a.t the cren.m,
to the parties concerned of a public brand bytin,,e
set upon the victim and his family, and ut.c,
hopeless disruption of all the domestic ties,
re
under other circumstances might have been
united if divided, or drawn closer if previuu-q
slackened.
114
The process which results from the writ
lunatico inquirendo is a disgrace to the Jul7Pnt
deuce of this country, and we trust. the
rgr,e7of
Lord Chancellor, who is the ex officio ea au'
wcrfud
the interests of all lunatics, will turn hi; po.
mind to establishing some other means or op
ing just decisions on those rausetshle axe.

ley
es-

It was the golden age of religion, literature,
nd the fine arts, that is, the religion and the
iterature and the fine arts of Rome and its

which aspired to

01 V A1,61Y 1 LOW.
tiousness and all the crime, and all the
grossness of licentiousness and all the reckless-
ness and cruelty of crime, the priestly caste still
maintained its own wicked pre-eminence ; the
Court of Rome was always the wellspring of cor-
ruption and Italy the most cursed, because the
nearest to the source. It was the memorable
saying of the great Florentine Secretary, that if
any one would know what the influence of Rome
was, he should be able to transport its Court into
some new place—into the least corrupt and
severest that could be found, into Switzerland,
for instance ; and he would soon see that the
Pope and his Cardinals would in a brief space
make it such a sink of profligacy and misery as it
could only be brought to be by centuries of any
other regimen. And yet if Rome was worse than
other Courts, convents were worse than the
Court of Rome. BEMBO, himself profligate, a
courtier and a cardinal, writes, in 1530, "It is
" with great reluctance that I have any thing to
" do with the affairs of frati, for many a time
" underneath I find every human atrocity, and on
" top a cover of diabolical hypocrisy." To find
a lower depth than this low deep it would be
necessary to enter into the private chambers
of the Popes themselves ; to read the lives
of such of their bastards as CESAR BORGIA,
PIER- LUIGI FA RNESE, OT that ALESSANDRO
MED ICI of whom BorrA says, "he makes it
" doubtful whether, in the most barbarous and
" most ferocious times, the most lascivious
" tyrants had ever gone beyond him in cruelty
"or outrageous last." But perhaps the most
striking testimony of all to the character of this
Augustan age of the Church is that borne by
ADRIAN VI., whose short reign followed that of

II

~,

THE PRESS, 4, ‘ SEPTEMBER lB5B
• 843
To spoil the spoiler as we may, It was the golden age of religion, literature,
TIIE INDIAN QUESTION.
And from the robber rend the prey, and the fine arts, that is, the religion and the
{'it}; controversy between Mr. LAYARD and
though its consequences necessarily extend literature and the fine arts of Rome and its
newspaper assailants leaves the former in far beyond the guilty individuals, seems natural convents, and of the Courts which aspired to
sundry
a better position than his antecedents as a and in a sense politic. Few, perhaps, of imitate the model set by the LEos, and the
the retributive measures brought officially CLEMENTS, and the PAULS. Never were the
political orator would have led us to expect. llis
before us in our public prints, are such as dogmas of the Faith or the discipline of the
temperament is a sore hindrance to his forming
to shock us in the perusal. But it should Church so commonly become the subjects of
a dispassionate judgment. He has large bene- be remembered (and those who have extensive discussion and debate, and never had ecclesias-
i valence with little mildness—is more courageous correspondence with India will know what we tics held so high a place in the public administra-
than discreet—more sincere than accurate. It mean) that a frightful mass of suffering has been tion of affairs. Printing and the translation of
inflicted on the native population, the innocent as the Bible sets all men upon religious controversy,
•
would not, therefore, have much surprised us if,
well as the guilty, which eludes notice, or at least and the rivalry and ambition of kings not only
I in his recent speech on the subject of the -Indian
escapes publicity. We hear that a village has delivered CLEMENT from Castle Sant Angelo, but
e war, he had been guilty of some misstatements been burnt—but the aged and helpless, the made him seem arbiter in politics, and his car-
t sufficiently grave to neutralize the effect of his widows and orphans left behind in the desolating dinals, indeed (what their name impudently
progress of our troops, have no one to tell of the sounded), the hinges of the world. As simple
well-meant pleadings, and to throw doubt on the
want and exposure under which they pine and legates of the Pope the names of such men as
I
motives and character
s - die. We know that crops are destroyed—but to Cosrranisn, MORONI, POLE, still ring loud in
nately, however, for the interests of humanity, he
ean ordinary English mind this is suggestive only history, but in Spain and Germany, in France
U appears to have escaped this. .danger. The report of waste and of pecuniary loss, like the burning and England, cardinals were often Prime Ministers
it of his address contained, it is true, certain ex- of a rick-yard at home. We do not think of as well as legates,and, from what we all know so well
a pressions which were open to question or cavil, wholesale deaths by famine—of that more than of Wor,suir, we may guess what were D'Amlionne
i• but little that might not be fairly accounted for stoical patience of the llindoo which shows itself and DUPRAT, XIMENES and TORTOSA, Du BELLAY
it by the effect of compression on a somewhat in calmly awaiting the direst extremity. The and LORRAINE. Some few, indeed, of these great
a diffuse style, or excused by the ordinary license same native who would extort from his co- ecclesiastics did their work of pride austerely
of rhetoric. Mr. LAYARD has done well in
T, religionist the grant of a petition by the threat, enough ; but when the requirements of their
ir calling public attention to the deep need of our seriously uttered, to die at his door, will resign priestly rank and dignity were set forth and en-
it avoiding in our own Indian operations that himself to death when the staff of his bread is forced, the pomp and magnificence of Cardinals
w charge of wanton cruelty which at the outset of broken ; but how little has this element of human in those days were beyond what stinted royalty
g the struggle we urged so effectively, and, we must suffering entered into our calculations! The must now put up with. As for the Papal en-
confess, so unscrupulously, against the mutinous mute sufferers—the thousands of weak, helpless, couragement of literature, Rome was still sitting
and revolted fanatics whom we had to chastise and dependent beings, who have lost their bread- as a Queen and without a fear. In spite of the
d, or reconquer. His appeal to the gentler feelings winner or their bread, have not come to " sit warning which PoLE so wisely gave of danger
at of his countrymen is not well-grounded only, dhurna " at our doors. They have died, and from the patronage of general literature, the
be but well-timed. In the earlier stage of the made no sign. And whilst our writers and name of LEO is more identified with letters than
re struggle, sanguinary retaliation, even where not speakers have been battling to establish or to that of FRANCIS; and PAUL 111. was in this re-
e strictly }justifiable, was almost a matter of neces-
in shy. The vindictive feeling of our troops, refute the frightful tale of one Englishwoman
exposed to outrage worse than death—while the
Englishwoman, spect another LEO; and the days of ARIOSW,
and TASK), and ERASMUS were the days of
NI deepened as it doubtless was by casual or malig-
Advertiser has been straining to satisfy inquiry
n, mint exaggeration of the outrages to be avenged,
by telling of the " beautiful woman," who limits
RAPHAEL and MICHAEL ANGELO. But, for the
most part, literature and the fine arts were the
to could scarcely be withstood, or even checked, her confidence to that most credulous of prints—
panders of their patron. They helped to propa-
bt
with safety. But we have now arrived at a new how should we be appalled were there suddenly gate the corruption which what was called reli-
nr phase of our operations which may fairly suggest laid before us a statement of all that has been
gion bred wherever it was carried. Vice and
of
a change of system. We have probably seen the suffered by native women from our soldiery, crime were everywhere just in proportion to the
last of pitched battles against regular armies, or especially from those more recently recruited! wealth and influence of the clergy, and they were
ne sieges of great towns, and must prepare fora .T his r is is a subject too painful to dwell on ; we
of everywhere enormous. Words are unequal to
harassing guerilla warfare—for desultory move-
ile only hint at it as one of the reasons for wishing describe, with any regard to modesty, the real
meets against irregular bodies of freebooters, and
eh that the thirst of vengeance may at length be state of higher society. Corruption almost laid
for the surprise and storm of detached hill forts. quelled in English hearts. To regret is to pity ; aside hypocrisy. There was hardly place left for
se. We may hope to hear no more of large British
sy to blush is to relent. And such as is the feeling shame where adultery and incest were alike open,
divisions, perfectly armed for slaughter, and no
of the English people, such will be substantially assassination by poison and the dagger a fashion
a less wonderfully equipped for suicide, moving by the course of our re-established rule in India. of the day, and no treachery, no cruelty shrunk
)151 forced marches against fivefold numbers, under
in llappily, the Governor-General is a man to whom from, or pretended to be shrunk from, if conve-
a sun hotter and more deadly than the enemy's
en merciful counsels are congenial—who can be firm nient for any purpose of a Pope, a King, a Car-
fire. Oude itself, which by a sort of retributive
to when need is, but is naturally averse to cruelty.
justice became the scene of our greatest difficulty, dinal, or petty prince. The tales of BOCCACCIO
We most cordially concur in Mr. LAYARD'S and of MARGUERITE of VALOIS are chronicles as
In- as it had been of our last injustice, now requires the
3.- panegyric on Lord CANNING. With the excep-
services of our soldiers rather in the character of well as tales, and MACHIAVELLI'S "Prince" is
tion of one single unfortunate proclamation,
a strong police than of troops in the field. We hastily issued and speedily recalled, in all his almost a biography of the Cardinal Duke
of VALEsrrisio. But amidst all the licen-
,ry have routed with frightful loss every native force public acts he has most judiciously tempered tiousness and all the crime, and all the
ley which has ventured to encounter us. We have justice with mercy. If retribution has anywhere grossness of licentiousness and all the reckless-
N- inflicted on the mixed population of two capital been carried to excess, the blame is not on him. ness and cruelty of crime, the priestly caste still
.ge cities the horrors of siege and storm. We have The proclamation in Bundelcund and Central maintained its own wicked pre-eminence ; the
rid burnt scores of villages which had given shelter, India of a discriminating amnesty similar to that Court of Rome was always the wellspring of cor-
all perhaps reluctantly, to sepoys in arms against already proclaimed in Oude has been one of the ruption and Italy the most cursed, because the
$e our authority. Of the deluded native soldiery most satisfactory announcements in the recent nearest to the source. It was the memorable
by who proved false to their oath and their colours, Indian correspondence. And if Lord CANNING'S saying of the great Florentine Secretary, that if
Is' we have slain thousands by martial law, and tens views be judiciously seconded by the local autho- any one would know what the influence of Rome
to of thousands in the field. With one exception, rities throughout India, we trust to see multitudes was, he should be able to transport its Court into
of every chief who obtained a "bad eminence" in of defeated rebels, now scattered through the some new place—into the least corrupt and
ion organizing the mighty movement against our wilder districts in a state of brigandage, slipping severest that could be found, into Switzerland,
ml race and religion has undergone signal punish- quietly back to their peaceful occupations, not
for instance ; and he would soon see that the
Ille went. Our vengeance has been prompt, far- sadder, but wiser, men. It would be a blessed Pope and his Cardinals would in a brief space
iry reaching, and comprehensive, if not indiscrimi- result that the season which witnesses the make it such a sink of profligacy and misery as it
nate. Thus far even The Friend of India will bringing our vast Indian empire under the could only be brought to be by centuries of any
ta, not accuse us of having been too merciful. A direct rule of Queen Vicroma should also behold other regimen. And yet if Rome was worse than
ii British journalist may now appeal to the gentler the inauguration of a system combining the other Courts, convents were worse than the
eil feelings of his countrymen without laying himself gentle attributes of feminine influence with the Court of Rome. BEMBO, himself profligate, a
nit open to the charge of that mock-philanthropy, n erei
So
vereign.
roc energetic sway of a greatovg.
me too often characteristic of modern liberalism, courtier and a cardinal, writes, in 1530, "It is
" with great reluctance that I have any thing to
ng which reserves all its sympathies for the guilty. " do with the affairs of frati, for many a time
or And we would therefore earnestly beg our readers " underneath I find every human atrocity, and on
IQ to entertain a few considerations which may tend JESUITISM. " top a cover of diabolical hypocrisy." To find
lag to mitigate that rancour of feeling against our
he misguided fellow-subjects in the East which at THE era of the Reformation was in every way a lower depth than this low deep it would be
ich an earlier stage of hostilities we felt ourselves a wonderful and an eventful one. The new necessary to enter into the private chambers
of the Popes themselves ; to read the lives
re, scarcely justified in condemning. We would Indies were growing into America, Muscovy into
of such of their bastards as C.ESAR BORGIA,
sly
sufferedentreat them to compare what we at first
with what we have since inflicted. Russia; modern commerce was beginning its PIER-LUIGI FARNESE, or that ALESSANDRO
That for of Genoa and Wiwi of whom I
I orra says, "he makes it
de in every British Christian foully massacred great carreer in the Republics
ful whether, in the most barbarous and
ll' the first outbreak of the revolt a human Venice ; the Grand Turk was crowned king at " doubt
h " most ferocious times, the most lascivious
flt hecatomb has been slain, is but a small portion of Bagdad ; CHARLES V. and FRANCIS I. and
the case. We `:, tyrants had ever gone beyond him in cruelty
of can spare little pity for troops or outrageous last." But perhaps the most
who have cemented mutiny
by blood, and GUSTAVUS VASA and HENRY VIII., were the lay
falstriking testimony of all to the character of this
iii- murderers taken red-handed. Pillage, too, has sovereigns of Europe ; and the MEDICI and the
in such a case its obvious though not always FARNESE were Christendom's acknowledged Augustan age of the Church is that borne by
aound defence. a Vicars of the ALIAWILTY. ADRIAN VI., whose short reign followed that of
a
. ..a4.- -........................
I .