The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1807-09-05 00:00:00

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► his ease as a lunatic by the ordinary legal mode of
it guiry, to submit him to any kind of constraint
hir life, deprived of the benefit of the Aft of the
14. Gen. 111. intended for the proteftion of persons
in this unhappy situation, and to prevent their
being longer deprived of liberty than they are di-
vested of their reasoning faculties; and if it be said
that this aft is not intended to mean confinement
for life, then we come to the point of our inquiry r
When and in what manner is it to be terminated ?
Let it be also observed, that the detaining more
than one lunatic in any place not licensed for luna-
tics, is a species of legal violation of the aft of the
1 ath, by the off of the 40th of the King.
It will he ssid, that altheugh lunatics cannot by
law be punished, yet by law it is &rated that they
shall be restrained —Admitted ;—hut the restraint
ordained is intended as an act of humanity to the ob-
ject*, as well as of security te the public.
So attentive has been the law to their protection,
that by one of our most ancient statutes, the King us
made the general gnardian of idiots and lunatics ;
and Sir W.Blackstene observes, on this statute, that,
*6 if the King's Cha,scellor, to whom he delegates
his authority. stinuld act iinprOpeely in granting
custodies, complaint must be made to the King in
Council."
It seems then to follow, that if this Act is to be
continued and followed up to its purpose; if luna-
tics ate to he so confined as not to era ire the idea of
a criminal punishment ; places suited to their case
must be constructed, and modes of restraint deter-
mined, and those places and those modes licensed
or otherwise sanctioned by public authority, And
open to an effective visitation and controul, such as
has been inetficaciousiy imagined by the Act of the
14 Cleo. 111.
If proper places are to be provided, and intim-
Von* estAhlished. we are then to consider, shall
these places he denenaent on other institutions (say
gams or Lospitels) or shall theybe sole and independ-
ent ? For what extent or division of the country
i shall they be provided ? Frans what fund shall the
cost be paid ? national. provincial, or parochial ? I
think that wards for this purpose should be parts of
extensive and independent institutions, their primary
construCtion should be at the expe:•se of the Crown,
or the national fund ; they should be instituted
each for circuit. or ether large division, and not for
counties ; their general eoablishment should be
supported by charge on the county rate of the seve-
ral counties united, in proportion to respeftire po-
pulation ; and the cost of maintenance, clothing.
and special attendance, should be paid by the estate
of the patient or his friends, or by the rcspeetive pa-
rishes. oceording to circumstances, as now provided
by the powers of 17 Geo. 11.; and, finally, in the
case of a pauper sot having a legal settlerocut, then
by the county or parish in which he shall be found;
this also according to the principle of existing law.
So far, my Lord, in compliance with your Lord-
ship's request, you have my detailed suggestions on
th • point in question, as it concerns the police and
criminal justice of the country.
Bat to the Minister presiding over the general
welfare of the interior, to a man that. without tar
picion of flattery, I may call distinguished for his
attention to the provincial duties, and therefore con-
versant in provincial evils, addressing myself to you.
my Lord, I say I am under no apprehension that
my remonstrances will be treated with what (from
the habits of the last 6tteen years) I am disposed to
term a Ministerial insensibility to interior regula-
tion:, if I tike this opportunity further to advocate
the cause of the most degraded, the most ill used
class of objets. that fall under our attention as Ma-
gistrates, and as men.
1 shall then further °laser* to your Lordship, that
not only the parochial but other poor lunatics, and
by poor, I would be understood to Mall lunatics
who, by their own estate, or that of their friends.
are not able to pay eighteen shillings per week for
core and maintenance ; these, I say. are frequently,
even by their own relations, treated not only worse
than other human beings, but worse than the brute
races

_
It is an observation of medical men of extensive
praaiee, that the lunatic affehon is a disease in-
creasing in its influence in this country ; in lain, I
believe theta is hardly a parish, of any contish rabic
extent, in which there mg not be found some un-
fortunate human creature of this description, who
if his ill treatment has made him phrenetic, is chain-
ed in the cellar or garret of a wotkhoose. fastened
to the leg of a table, tied to a post in an outhouse,
or, perhaps, shot up in an uninhabited ruint ; or, if
his lunacy be inoffensive, left to ramble, half naked,
and half starved, thronah the streets and highways,
teased by the scoff and- jest of all that is vulgar,
ignorant, and anfeeling.
I am concerned to say. that ti the dungeons of
the gaols some are devoted by tie commitment of
Magistrates, by a mistaken or heedless conattudion
of the 17th Geo. 11.

Of the number of these forlorn objeas, I know
that your Lordship has endeavoured to inform
yourself ; but I suspect that your laudable intention
will be found to be frustrated, by design or negli•
gence of parochial officers, who are ever jealous
and apprehensive of the purpose of as uliexplained
inquiry.
It is, however, enough for my argnmeat to say,
generally, that of all the lunatics in the kingdom,
the one-half are not under any kind of ptotettion
from ill treatment, or placed in a situation to be
relieved from their malady.
Yet, if there be a disease which is a natural rots-
fortune, unmixed with consequence of immoral lite,
this is that disease. The statute book is bare of
legislative provisions for these persons. The first
law respelling them is 17 Edw. 11. c. 9 and 10.
making the King guardian of the estate of idiots
and lunatics, and particularly ordaining 'I That
their lauds and tenements shall in so wise be aliened
or wasted, and that the King shall take nothing to
his own use."

To this day this stntnte is the protenion of tuna-
tics of property. No further witlce is taken ot
them until the vagrant eft of 17 Geo. 11. c 5. And
there their situation is no otherwise treated thin to-
gethese with that of rigne. an 4 vaiiabonds, And in
a way she.; ing that the security ot the public was