The Express.
London, England, 1864-03-22 00:00:00

2

CANDLES.-PRIZE MEDAL.
PARAFFINIC—Adopted by Yr llsjratfa eoverarasaitor
the military stations.'
J. C. sad J. FIELD,
the orlehud arasufacturees sad holders of the ISM Prise Wald,
caution the public asplast say spuleas baltatious. Their label
to CIO all packet" sad bona field by all dealers througheut the
ldagdeve. Wholeseleaad ter stporsetioa at the Wort; UPPER
MARSH. LAMBLIII. LONDON. where she nay be obtained
their c elebrsted United @rebellious Tablets.

HOW COLD IT HAS BEEN.-NEGRETTI
and ZAMORA'S celebrated THERMOMETERS will cor-
rectly register the lowest teeaserstars. Price 3s. ad.-1, Hatton-
garden ; SO. Corolilll 153. Ineet-street ; sad 122, Regent.street.
Agents wanted.

THE DEPOTS AUTHENTIQUES for SALE
of the SNUFFS, Tobaccos, mud C7pn, nianulactured or Im-
ported b
THE FRENCH GOVERNMINT TOBACCO ADMINISTRATION,

are at
5)-2, PICCADILLY, W.: 60, KING WILLIAM-STICKILY, CITY.

Zfit ersirtiSlS.

TO 0033.13PONDENTIL

errertbraento Inb;;;IeT tor " iiii&iieTs• Lowden Tirwasig
Paper, meet be al taw egad, 0, Boovarboatresa, by Two
Wawa oa Yu day at pobbeattoo.l

HAYIIABILET.

Tins Emma. FISHJUT OFWATER. Yr. Compton.—
THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL Messra Cleppendale, Howe,
Regvrs, Compton, and Burkstone Misses bagel 1111 Snowdon.
—AI4 LF..Nu FIVE SHILLING& Mr. boalutose.

LYCIIIIIL_

OS EASTER lloxpAr. A1317(7117131 THE FAIR. lb.
ichticoato amt rIW E. lAvenue.—And Eta DEMONIO.
Fechter, Broastama, Daffy, T. Morton, Charles, &ad
Jordan ; alum Terry, layseoit, awl lisworlaw, awl Yrs. Lim

BRITANNIA.

Tun Immo. EVIL HANDS AND HONEST HEARTS.
Mrs $. 'Abb.—A GRAND CONCERT. Moors. Porde, Steele,
Fr‘tilloo, Pfo Whautkini Miss H. Convene y. db.—Dancing by
3tacStephszi—And TUE SHAD CAPTAIN.

HIGH WATI6 AT LONDON BAIDGI.
TVG DAT Aftvemoos. 16. leis
V-1110110W Montag. I.lt. 13m .. .Aftwoosa. Ht. 2831.

LONDON, TUESDAY, MARCH 22.

PHILANTHROPISTS are proverbially enthusiastic :
and the indignation excited by the unexpected dis-
covery of a great wrong sometimes betrays men
into serious exaggeration. Only a few months ago
the town was horrified by the publication of a
letter from Dr. BYRNE, of Falmouth, in which he
described the condition of • poor lunatic, Rosser
PORTER, who bad been confined for 30 years in a
house at Flushing, near Falmouth. The victim
was the brother of S►MUEL, the man under whose
care he lived ; but there was no sort of evidence
that SAMUEL was brutal in disposition, or that be
had any pecuniary interest in the lunatic's pro-
perty. The cue was investigated at the time,
not only by Dr. BYRNE, but by the Lunacy
Commissioners. There was, therefore, some
guarantee against exaggeration, but still the
facts revealed were so revolting that it was
naturally hoped the dark outlines of the picture
might be somewhat softened. Unfortunately this
hope has proved fallacious. SAMUEL PORTER has
been tried before Baron balm, at Bodmin, for
" abusing and ill-treating " his lunatic brother
ROBERT. Dr. BYRNE, Mr. LUTWIDGE, a Lunacy
Commissioner, and others were placed in the
witness-box. They told what they actually saw;
and even after hearing them, it is difficult to be-
lieve that any such facts could possibly exist in
this or in any other Christian country.
Some thirty years ago there was living at
Flushing, in Cornwall, a good-looking, robust, and
intelligent young man of twenty-five, called
ROBERT PORTER. He followed the business of a
tailor, and lived with his father and mother.
About this time, however, his reason gave way,
and he became insane. Until the year 1850 his
father seems to have taken care of him, and then
his sister Citetmorre undertook the same office
until she went to America, in 1853. Since that
time his brother SaNtrit. has had him in charge.
He was confined originally by SAMUEL in • room
adjoining the house in which he himself lived, but
about Lady-day, 1863, the lunatic ROBERT was
removed in a wheelbarrow during the night to •
room outside the new house which his brother had
built and was about to occupy. For eleven years
no human eye except that of SAMUEL
PORTER had seen this miserable being, except
once, about three years ago, when he
was seen in his cell by a woman who,
as she said, " was so frightened that she did
"not know what to do." For eleven years the
only evidence of his existence were the moaning
cries which issued from the cell, and the fact that
his brother S.tm (EL visited him with food. All
the village, we are told, knew it. But, as one
witness said, "no one complained, because every-
" body thought that they might do what they
" liked with a lunatic." The modern doctrines
touching lunatics have not yet reached the lower
strata of society. There is still a vehement preju-
dice amongst the poorer classes against sending
their friends or relations to a lunatic asylum ; and
therefore it is not impossible that if Dr. BYRE
had not interfered I:oeuitr Poems might still
have been lying amidst all the abomination in
which he was found.

The first room where the lunatic was confined,
and from which he was removed during the night
in a wheelbarrow, was only 9 feet by 6. The
morning after the removal this place wu visited
by a man who declared that when he first at-
tempted to enter, " the smell came out and
" knocked him back." At length he did enter.
There was no bed ; no straw—only stones, and
upon these stones covered with filth it was evident
that the poor wretch had been lying. There wu
neither fireplace, nor ventilation beyond a single
window covered with a green blind. It was, ac-
cording to the witness, " a pig's house," and
in clearing it out he " filled seven or
" eight mason's wheell,arrows with the filth."
The new room to which poor Poitrtit was re-
moved was hardly an improvement. It was, in-
deed, somewhat larger. But there was no fire-
place—nothing but a single window, and the same
intolerable stench as before. The only articles of
furniture were a truck-bed with laths across,' a
frying-pan, and a dirty pewter pot. There lay the
lunatic slii.itting down, but supporting himself on
his hands, the legs doubled up, the knees against
the chest, and his heels against the thighs, the
feet crossed one over the other. Yet lost as he wu,
the glimmering instinct of the poor wretch seemed
to revolt against what he had mistaken for food.
There was uo bedding, but there were three pieces
of sacking, which he had coiled round him for
warmth after the visitor had opened the window.
His body was sheathed in dirt, and covered with sores.
His hair was roughly cut—his appearance was
unhealthy and careworn, as if he had been half-
starved, but at the same time he was not entirely
without intelligence. In short, here was a human
being afflicted with a terrible calamity, placed under
the care of his own brother, but for whom that
brother had neglected to make such provisions as
mere humanity might have dictated.
If Mr. OAF, the counsel for SAMUEL Ponrrn,
had confined himself to the technical objection
which he tweed against the indictment—that the
Act of Parliament under which it was framed did
not apply to a cue in which a husband take. care
of a lunatic wife or a man takes care of his brother
—he would have confined himself within the sphere