The Sun.
London, England, 1837-04-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The rate-payers of the county of Middlesex must be
upon the look-out, as another job is confidently stated to
be on the tapis. The old cry of humanity to the poor will
be raised, and as much dust as possible will be thrown
upon the rate-payers to prevent them from having too clear
a perception of the real nature of the transaction. On
Thursday next, being the county-day of the April Quarter
Sessions, it will be proposed by one of the local, to grant
the visiting Justices '22,000/. for the extension of the Lu-
natic Asylum at Hanwell. It has long been notorious
that that monstrous affair, the Hanwell Asylum, as a place
for the cure of lunacy, is a decided failure, notwithstanding
the cost of 140,0001.. which the purchase of the land at
2501. per acre, and the mass of brickwork erected thereon,
have occasioned. The public are very much indebted to
the Hon. Member for Nottinghamshire, Mr. G. Knight,
whose recent admirable letter to a portion of his consti-
tuents on the subject, and in support of the Poor Law
Amendment Act, we regret that, from the pressure of
Parliamentary business, we had not space to insert :—We
say that to this Honourable Member of the House of
Commons the public is deeply indebted for the means
of exposing the transactions which relate to the
cure of the unfortunate lunatic inmates of the Han-
well Asylum. The order of the House of Commons
of the 13th of March last, for the names and parishes to
which they belonged of the 260 paupers discharged cured
from the Hanwell Asylum, from the 15th May, 1831, to
the 31st December, 1836, seems to have thrown the snug
little coterie—the management of that Institution—into
consternation. It will appear from the Magisterial circular,
which we insert in another column, that the visiting Justices
of the Lunatic Asylum have, since that searching matter-
of-fact order of the House of Commons, called upon the
doctor of the Establishment " to explain the cause of the
apparent paucity of the numbers cured in the Asylum at
Hanwell, compared with those cured in other Institutions."
In our opinion, it is the visiting Justices who should be re-
quired to answer the query, and not the doctor, who, in
his reply, it will be seen, states the important fact, that,
during nearly six years, he has treated 1,296 patients, and
" that the total number of patients cured, out of the 1,296,
has been 260." By the votes of the House of Commons
of Saturday morning, we perceive that the Hon. Member
for Nottinghamshire wants more information about these
260 patients cured in six years, as the following extract
from the votes of the House of Commons will prove :
" Lunatic Paupers, Hanwell.—Return ordered of each
of the lunatic paupers, who, by the Return presented to
the House of Commons on the 6th of April, appear to
have been discharged cured from the Lunatic Asylum at
Hanwell, and who subsequently to the date returned as
that of their cure, have been, or now are, inmates of that
asylum ; distinguishing those who have died there and those
who have been dismissed uncured." As this is a subject of
the utmost importance to the unfortunate inmates of the
Lunatic Asylum, as well as to those of our readers who, as
rate-payers, have to supply the money to be expended at
that Institution, we have been at some pains to obtain the
most accurate information on the subject of the 1,296 pa-
tients admitted to the Hanwell Asylum ; and we have ar-
ranged from the various annual reports by the visiting Jus-
tices of the Hanwell Asylum, reported to the Quarter Ses-
sions, the following table :
Table of the 1,296 Pauper Lunatics admitted to the lianwell
Asylum from May 13, 1831, to Dec. 31, 1836.

1831 1832 18s3 1:531 •i 835 1536 Total
P.eii,nts admitted whose cases did
not exceed 3 months and first at-t • 33
sack
Ditto whose cases did not exceed/ 26 29 1S lti
1.3 inonths
Ditto whose cases did not exceed 241 9 1:7 14 3.
two years
Ditto whose cases exceeed.xl two 329. 123 1:9
years
Ditto who had had previousattacks 10 14 i 3
Total admissions during the years/ 2;:. 4221 003 122 11 11! L.' 6
at tha hoad of each cohmin

Not specified this year.

We boldly state our opinion, we dishclicv
to the House of Commons, that 260 patients have been
cured in the six years in the Hal...well Asylum. Looking
at the table, we think that the 9./5 cases which were ad-
nutted in 1831, not being classified, is a very suspicious
fact, because in the twaddle from Hanwell, announced
iu
j.llO circular from the Sessions-house, Clerkenwell, of the
Gth instant, it is stated that 1,066 were old cases, and only
230 of the 1,296 were recent cases. We know that the
eases in 1831 were selected as those most likely to be
cured from among the lunatic paupers of Middlesex ; and
a selection of cases is one of the very fundamental princi-
ples upon which the rules and regulations for the ad-
mission of patients to the Hanwell Asylum are founded.
If this fact be established, it annihilates all sophistry ;
rind the unpalatable truth of the entire failure of
this institution, as a means of curing lunatics, up-
on which such an extravagant expenditure of the
public money has been squandered, is at once de-
monstrated. Now to prove the fact of the selection
of cases to be admitted to Hanwell. A return ordered
to be printed by the House of Commons so recently as the
14th of July, 1836 (No. 444), which is a return from all
the County Lunatic Asylums in England, in the Middle-
sex portion the rules and regulations are given ; and at page
17 it is stated, " Patients will be admitted every Tuesday
and Friday, from eleven to one o'clock. The Overseer qf
the Parish must first write to inquire if there be a vacancy.
He will then receive a List of Questions, which must be
answered immediately, and as correctly as possible. He
will then be informed if the patient can be admitted, and
on what day." This is_ the rule of admission to the Han-
well Asylum agreed upon in April, 1831, before one pa-
tient was received, and returned to the House of Commons
as the rule of admission in April, 1836, by the Visiting
Justices of that Asylum ; and with this fact before our
readers we leave the circular to make its own impression
as to the real cause of" the apparent paucity" of cures in
the six years at Hanwell. There are two statements in
this Hanwell circular that require a few observations. It
is therein shown that the gross number of zatients received
in the six years into that Lunatic Asylum is 1,296 ; these
the Doctor divides into two classes, viz.—
Old cases
Recent cases

e statemen

Total
This shows only a gross amount of cure of 197, whereas the
return to the House of Commons is stated to be 260, and
so does the previous part of the same circular. What is
the mystification here ? Is the real amount of cure
197 cases in the six years, swelled out by repetitions
of the same persons to 260 ? Our next remark is
on these words of the Hanwell circular, " I would beg
leave to add one observation with respect to the number
of deaths ; the proportion is not greater than that of any
.other merely Pauper Lunatic Asylum, where all, as in the
c.tse here, must be either discharged cured, or by desire of
their friends, in consequence of their being able to maintain
them, or else must remain until they die." Now what do
our readers imagine is the amount of mortality in that Lu-
.natic Asylam fr3m May 1831 to December 31, 1836—t0
which such a delicate allusion is made ? Three hundred
and ninety-one have died there. There is no apparent
paucity of deaths, whatever there may be of cures in that
institution. e rejoice to see that the representative ves-
tries of the metropolis are alive to the importance of the sub-
ject. St. George, Hanover-square, has unanimously ex-
pressed a decided objection to the proposed extension of
the Asylum—so has the representative vestry of St. James,
-Westminster—so also has the vestry of Mary-le-bone.
'These three vestries alone represent property liable to
cointy rates exceeding one million and a half of annual
rental, which property it is in the power of the Middlesex
-tgistrates to tax without the consent, and to spend the
amo mot of that taxation without the controul of these
elected representatives of such an immense property. The
.representative principle in these three parishes has reduced
lhe parochial charges upon their respective inhabitants
about two hundred thousand pounds per annum. The
same principle would soon root out jobbery in the county
of Middlesex, and give a great relief to the rate-payers of
the meiropolitan county. We shall closely watch the pro-
ceedings of the Magistrates on the county-day. We shall
rcsurne the subject upon an early occasion, and also advert
age.in to the disgraceful state of the Middlesex prison for
untried prisoners.--Morning Advertiser.

SITTING UP.--Tt,ere are few things more worry-
ing than sitting up for somebody, especially if that somebody
be at a party. You cannot he2p thinking bow quickly the
;time passes with them, which drags so heavily with you; and
L'ie more you think of this the more yotzr hopes of their speedy
• atival decline. Clocks tick so loud, too, when you are sit-
tint.' up alone, and you seem—at least we always do—as if
you had got an under garment of cobwebs on. First, some-
thing tickles your right knee, and then the same sensation
irritates your left. You have no sooner changed your posi-
tion tlwn it comes again in the arms ; and when you have
£dgetted your limbs into all sorts sf queer shapes, you have
a sudden rt lapse in the nose, which you rub as if to rub it off,
at there is p doubt you would if you could. Eyes, too, are
mere personal inconveniences, and the wick of one candle
gets an inch and a half long while you are snuffing the other.
'These, and various other little nervous annoyances, render
sitting up for a length of time after every one else has gone to
bekl anything but a cheerful amusement.--Pickwick.
Died, at Stewarton, on the 30th March, Margaret
Cal 'jerwood, the most aged person in the pariah. According
to hr T own statement and that of her friends, which we believe
to be correct, she was in the 103 d year of her age. She was
rnarrir d to Charles Banks, and had been a widow for about 30
years. During the latter years of her life she was supported
by charill:ty. Her friends and neighbours were kind to her.
About f.o.ur years ago she got a new tooth, and recovered her
so that she was ab!e to read her psalm-book without
de aid of spectacles. She had been very deaf for several
Sear'
• but :retained her mental faculties to the last, and prized
great ly the visits of the minister.—Scottish Guardian.