The Express.
London, England, 1848-09-27 00:00:00

LUNACY RESULTING FROM THE SEPARATE

Bear,—The importance of troth in the statements of
public mew is of the first ns comity. Sir Peter Laurie, qss
president of the Royal Hospital of Bethlehem, has on seve-
ral occasions stated that the increase of lunacy in criminals is
to be attributed to the adoption of the separate system.
At a recent meeting of Middlesex magistrates, he said
that " all criminal lunatics were sent to the hospital with
which it was well known he had been for many years
associated ; " and, moreover, that whilst the entire of the
gaols in England and Wales had furnished six eases
only during a period of three years, no fewer than 49
lotteries had been received from three government prisons,
viz. 29 from the hulks, 19 from Millbank, and 10 from the
Medel Prison at Pentonville, " every one of whom had fallen
a victim to the inhuman system of solitary confinement."
A statement like this is calculated to create a strong im-
pression on the public mind, and, if true, demands imme-
diate attention ; but • slight investigation will at once show
that Sir Peter has made these assertion.; at random. In the
fint place, Bethlehem isnotthe only asylumfor the reception of
lunatic. criminals • the latest (Awl information on the sub-
ject is to he fours, in the " Further report of the Commis-
sioners of Lunacy," in which it is given, at pane 317, total
number of criminal lunatics in Bethlehem Hospital, Ist
Jan., 1847, 111; total number of criminal lunatics in other
asylums and prisons throughout England and Wales, 226 ;
so that one-third only of the criminals are sent to Bethlehem
Hospital
Bat Sir Peter is equally la error in supporing that the
forty-nine eases sent from the three government prisons
are " victims to the inhuman system of solitary con-
finement." Pentonville prison has been built expressly
on the separate system, and this mode of discipline
has been in force from its opening, six years 'Mee,
the prisoners who ere received there being all transports*
who, after undergoing from eighteen months' to two years'
confinement, are sent as exiles to the penal colonies; the
separate system is, therefore, silt jected to the severest test at
Pentoneille, from the great length of imprisonment, as also
from the exciting muses which a sentence of banishment may
always be expected to produce on the minds of criminals.
The discipline in the hulks is, however, the reverse of separa-
tion, for there the prisonen work together in gangs, and
associate at meals and exercise ; whilst at Milbank both
KlP=are in operatim. But the following letter from
Groves, the governor of Millbank, sets at rest the
question of how many victims to the solitary system have
been furnished to Bethlehem by that prison :
211Thenk Meow, Sept. 20, 1240.-84,—1n scaly to your inquiry, I
beg to seinelat yea that Ili Peter Laurie's 04 In pawl as to
the fast etlS asselds baying Mee sesond tram this pees home,
to Boadoloon Smile' ire Ansel, lies. Sir Mar is, lassever, in
aver as is Sek Peri* sett Winnable is say one to the
east of es ter aesirmsl.
tiaty ars MOO oat of the
masker as Owe be my Se Be suppoeitioe.
OP the issulehai slams wen Imam convicts,
tetras ass wee seMerisis ma Be thee et Sit sesvislias from
the plea et Issesli leavlsy ss_le Sir Mire, sad who
wore most ter aAs days sly •sli paler as UNA being
asst to BeOsimilosi lastatic Sykes. AM sieves ewe reseist tree
.Be prisisseader sralleate at Sias tree ban Yeast % Ist "boss
sass Sere 0 espiskes that usenet Om vote saleiseled
cats essdramt. ressined le lisdaiskas es Nos es the aedkal
Sir w •Sheeleeks
desk reeeptieslis prassusee •
—I sm.*, your obe &diet pairsie ly in three or
sine
B. throvis.—Mr. Aiderman Sidney, N.Y. dint servant, J.

It will thus be seen that Eir Peter's 49 victims havo been
reduced to 13 only ; but if comparison of numbers is worth
anything as chewing the effects of particular treatment on
the mind of the prisoner (which I very much doubt), the
result of the associated, as compared with the separate sys-
tem, is startling.
The total number of criminal lunatics on the Ist Januiry,
1847, was 337; 13 of this number had been, whilst in gaol,
undergoing the separate system of discipline, the remaining
324 never having undergone this treatment.
I shall not attempt to trespass further on your indulgence
by offering any defence of the improvement in prison disci-
pline effected by the wife and the good of all parties in the
state within the last few years ; but I have a right to ask of
every candid mind whether it is fitting to calumniate a sys-
tem by such mis-statements ? and if the result justifies a
magistrate holding the distinguished position of president to
one of the Royal Hospitals, asserting and wishing it publicly
to go forth that this system is the " great nursery of
lunacy 1" THOMAS Bronzy.
London, Sept. 26, 1848.

IRELAND.

DUBLIN. SEPT. N.

The accounta from the south to day report a ga-
thering of the people on some high ground near
'Murk& A party of soldiers bad been sent oat to
drive them away, but of course they will as usual
disperse when their approach is seen. No one looks
upon such an incident now as worthy more than a
passing remark. Mr. Baron James Parke will, it is
said, remain in the neighbourhood of Clonmel during
the whole time the commission sits as guest of
the Earl of Donoughmore. Of course the learned
bison will not take any part in open court in the
Wm* not being named in the commission—nor could
he, as an English judge, in the present state of our
laws; but there is no doubt also that his opinion or
advice may be both useful and necessary in some of
the many knotty points which will probably arise in
comae of the proceedings, and in which his more
intimate knowledge of the practice of the Eng-
lish courts, will necessarily be advantageous
to the course of justice. Baron Pennefather,
who it seems is named in the commission, will remain
at his seat near Clonmel during the proceedings; and
should consultations become adviaable, will, doubtless,
lend his assistance. The learned baron is one of our
most able criminal judges.
The indulgence shown to Mr. O'Brien has been, it
is said, somewhat lessened, in consequence of a com-
plaint from one of his colleagues.
Farther arrests have taken place—one, a man
named Cunningham, allowed himself to be discovered
by a pretended sympathiser, a detective, on a public
conveyance.
The following appears in the Freeman of this
m ingWe deeorn :
ply regret to announce that Mr. Martin has been
labouring under fever for the Lit week, and that he is at
present in a very precarious state. He n attended by his
own private physician, and also by Dr. Bennet, the medical
attendant of the prison, and it appears that but slight hopea
are entertained of tke patient's recovery.
Among the children who were admitted to be par-
takers of the Roman catholic sacrament of confirma-
tion at Bkibbereen last week, 250 were from the union
workhouse. Dr. Walsh, the Roman catholic bishop
of Cork, remaraed their peculiarly. healthy and con-
tented appearance, a circumstance in which the advo-
cates of a much-abused law must have consolation.

Whew world those happy little ones have been had
we no poor law ?

Tax New Texaco MESTER in Chancery will probably be
Mr. Peirce Mshoay, an eminent solicitor, and one to whom
the whig party in Ireland owes many obligations.
THE Melon-um CLASSIC—The character of the emi-
gration from Ireland this lesson is perhaps snore extra-
ordinary than the numbers; from Dublin it is continued
with unabated activity. They are not our artisans, our
labourers, who leave, as in ordinary years, but our men
of small capital and active habits, with energy and specu-
lation—the men, in fact, who realised whatever wealth
was " made " hitherto in this country. Add to these a
numerous elm of parties with small annual incomes, eked
out by little earnings in business or otherwise, and some
professional persons, and you will have a perfect idea of the
manner of people who fil our Dublin emigrant vessels. The
skopkeepinig dun are also emigrating in numbers, as there
seems to be a total cessation of the retail trade, except in
those large shops where it is the fashion for our housewives
of late years to resort for every article they use. There is no
business doing, save with the auctioneers; and household
furniture has nearly become a drug. Thus it is we get
slang in Ireland. The Fingal, an emigrant ship of
the largest clam left our shores yesterday, carrying many of
our shopkeepers, some professional persons and small ma-
nufacturers, and also some few men having small salaries in
public offices, but whose numerous and idle families made
them anxious to proceed whither they might have a field for
young energies to set in. A vessel with 276 emigrants sailed
this week from Galway.
MIDDLEYEN.-0110 effect not less remarkable than advan-
is slmost sure to arise fini o the present circumstances
rt'hism country—the annihilation of the " middleman "
clue. lam not of opinion that " middlemen" have not
been of use in the social progress of this country. I believe
they have done great good at a former period, because they
acted as a sort of proprietary in a country when the fee of the
laud was in the hands of a few great landowners. They were
for the most part resident, and for their own sakes they sti-
mulated considerably the agricultural industry of the people.
But they lived by exacting (tom the peasantry the his
rent, and though that rent was spent by them at home, al-
most exclusively, yet experience, sa well as museeny,
MEM us that such exaction' invariably make a
people and a country poor. At present the mid-
-3l -emus are fast disappearing beneath the rush of
that tide in our affairs of which no man can see the level.
The under tenants cannot pay the rents—the landlord will
not abate one jot of his claim against the middleman, and
thus the operation programs which will probably end in the
annihilation of the elms. Premed to this extant, the middle-
man has recourse to means the most hush to wring from
the cultivator the promised rent, no matter what becomes of
him after, and many a grievous eviction is cceented for this

purpose, and many a crime and outrage provoked by it,
Sven today in Tipperary we find it stated that the middle-
men are busy at the work of extermination. What the result
will be, we may all with safety, though not with satiate.-
don, predicate. Nor are the territorial landlords behind-
hand is this work.