The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-08-11 00:00:00

THE BRITISH PRESS.

to tell him you are coming he will be frightened to death." I mad:
answer," Ile will not be more frightened at seeing us than he will b
at seeing you." The sister then came down stairs, and asked if we
would sit (lawn at the tire, and take something. We said. we did
net wish to sit down to the fire, or to take anything; we wished to
see her poor unfortunate brother, who was cenfined up stairs. She
said we could not see him, beeause her brother had taken the key
of the door widi hint to market. I told her, if she would not find
the key, and the door was locked, we should break it open. for to
see him we were determined. She replied, " Gentlemen, I hope
you will behave like gentlemen ;" and I said, "Yes, ma'am, I hope
we shall." She then said she would look for the key, and she told
her brother and the maid to look about for it . • and they did lonic in
different placer. On her saying she could not find the key, I
went up stairs into the garrets, but could find nothing there. On
coming down again, on the first landing, I found Thomas Smith,
Miss Smith, Mr. Broughton, and the constable. lam not sure
whether the maid-servant was thereof not. I said, " Mr. Smith,
you had better let us me him without further trouble." Tl.omaa
Smith then went down the passage to a room at the end, the door
of which facial the passage immediately. Ile pushed the door
open, anal went in. As soon as I got to the door dill, I put my
head in, and saw It was a light morn. and I said, " This is not the
room." Mr. Broughton was immediately behind me, and he
perceived anotherdoor opposite; He said this must be the room, and
he opened the door. I walked in, and observed the window on the
opposite side. There was a smell hole in it that might take in th at
inkstand on the table there, or Midis, FA large, and one or two
other small holes, into which I might put my finger, where the
mortar had not been: plastered up. I had a strong ash stick, with
which I punched out four or five of the top bricks. On turning
round I saw Miss Smith, Thotias Smith, Mr. Broughton, and the
constable behind me. I observed no furniture in the room except
the bedstead. The room flnrrr was covered with filth in heaps. It
was' human excrement an/. chaff. If it hail been shovelled up i:
must have filled two wheelbarrow,. There was a little clean out
chaff, and a few now:. on the floor besides. There was a little
piece of carpet or rug tolled up about the site of my am, which
lay upnm one ef isre lumps of filth. The bed was exert!), op-
posite the door. 7he heed did not touch one wall, nor the foot
another, b,l one !aide was against the wall. Againat the side
nearest the sotragree there was as old door, apparently of HINUe of
the cow.hooses, ;mopped up with a large piece of timber. I said
to Miss Smith, 11, In -the name of God. where in this poor creature?"
She went up to the head of the bed, the poets of which stood aixout 3
feet high ; she reached holder the end of a board and turned down the
entla or two !mks, and then turned off a very small filthy blanket
and said, " 'Here, Gentlemen, here he s." He lay coiled up like a
greyhound dog, only with one foot in one hand, and the other foot
to the °do:, hand. His knees were up nearly to Iris mouth. He
lay on his left aide, on a heap of oat chaff, with his back towards
tie. Hr turned himself round, and seemed very much frightened.
I patted him on the shoulder and smiled at him, and that seemed
to shake some of his fear. Ile was not then so much alarmed as
befote. I asked him If he was cold, and he answered " aye," is
a dreadful tone of voice, more like a wild beast than a human
creature. I said to his sister, " How could you be such a horrid
wretch as to let this poor creature lie in this state ?" She made
answer that he had a good clean comfortable bed to go to, and a
good clean room, but he would crawl back to that filthy place.
I said that was a lie ; for he had not been out of the room for •
great many years. I said I understood his fattier had left hint
the interest of lOW. for hilt support for life.
3lr. Justice Buaaouou 11115 of opinion that this was not
evidence. _

Winters, in continuation—l observed the fireplace ; there had
been nn fire there for a year and more; there were no sticks or
straws in it to kindle a fire. This poor creature had not a single
thread on his body—he was perfectly naked. There was a small
pillow under his head, about a foot in length, just long enough to
reach from one side of the head to the other : it was a sttrtll filthy
pillow, that you could put into your hat. The chaff he lay
upon was dirty : it appeared to me to be such a bed as a pig
would lie on—as it they had chucked now and then a basket of
chaff on it, to refresh it—there was a Inhume of stale and fresh.
There was a dreadfully offensive smell in the room, such as in a
caravan of wild beasts, Ibis beard was from lour inches and a
half so live inches long. AVe topped in the seam ten or twelve
minutes and then went down. Air. Broughton then wrote a letter
to Mr. Garrett, the superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum ■t
Staffihd. which I took. We left the constable P.litkon behind.
When I returned in the evening, about nine o'clock, with Mr.
Garrett in a chaise, 1 found the room had been cleaned and
scoured, and the floor was still wet all over. The idiot was then
lying in a nice clean bed, with clean pillows and shies, and the
bedstead had been moved four feet from the wall, but lie hal still no
shirt on. We put a mattress into the chaise, and took him in that
to Stafford Asylum.
Thi■ witness was cross-examined at some length, but nothing
was elicited from him to shake hit evidence.

The Rev. Henry Mires Broughton, the Magistrate who accom-
panied rite last witness, completely corroborated his testimony, with
the exception that he did not take notice of any excrement on the
floor. The Reverend Gentleman with much candour added, that
at he was approaching the bed he war obstructed by Mira Smiths
and seeing her decked out quite smart, In a fine blue silk gown,
*bile her wretched brother was in the deplorable state described.
in the warmth of the moment he made use of an expression which
was very improper. and which he growls, regretted.
Jonathan Poulson, the constable, gave prec.sely the 'tame ac-
count an the two last witnesses, and added that in the course of the
afternoon he was so sick with the night of the man and the stench
of the room, that lie went home to get a pipe of tobacco. He was
gone something mote than half an hour. After his return he din-
covered that the morn had been cleaned out and mopped ; and it
war then wet when Mr. Garrett came.

Mr. John Garrett, the superintendent of the Stafford Lunatic
Asylum proved hir receiving the idiot in charge. In conveying
him to the Asylum in the post-chaise, the stench that came from
him was so intolerable, that though it was one of the coldest nights
in January. they were obliged to ride with all the windows open.
On his arrival at the Asylum he was put into a warm bath, and
other remedies adopted to do him good. Since he has been in the
Asylum he has never been in a tit ; he never objected to being
shaved, and was regularly shaved twice a week. the same as the
other patients. The witness is now of opiniem that the right thigh
bone has been fractured. There had been no re-union of the bone
until the patient came to the Asylum, since which the fracture has
been attended to, and he now believes there is a re-union.
Several other highly respectable physicians and surgeons gave
the same opinion with respect to the thigh, and expresseu thoir be-
lief that the patient bad never been troubled with epileptic fits or
paralysis.
31r. CAMPBELL made a powerful reply, which lasted nearly
three hours, in the course of which he went through the whole of
the case, and was at one part much affected.
At ten o'clock, when the case was clostd on both sides, Mr. Jus-
tice Bt, RROLTGII informed the Jury that there would not be time
to sum tip to-night, and therefore the case is again adjourned until
to-morrow morning at nine o'clock.