The Sun.
London, England, 1830-05-13 00:00:00

established and recognised as necessary for the salutary and
effective conducting of the affsirs of .a Government con-
stituted as ours is.

," Understanding there is little probability of your ac-
cordance in the matters that are pending, under such cir-
cumstances I consider it my duty to relieve you from fur-
ther continuance in Session, that you may return to your
homes to attend to your private concerns."

(Signed) " MICHAEL WALLACE."
After which the Assembly was prorogued to
the Ist July next.

It lately became our duty to call the attention
of the public to a prosecution instituted by the
Metropolitan Commissioners in Lunacy, against
an Apothecary, for having signed a certificate
thata woman was mad, without his having seen
the individual. The circumstances, though said
to be somewhat extraordinary, we fear are not of
very uncommon occurrence, but respecting which
we shall for the present content ourselves with
making some few enquiries.
Is not the woman in this case the wife of a
gentleman's coachman, and was she not cook in
the family ?
Was not the certificate of insanity signed by
two Apothecaries, co-partners, who attend the
family?

• Did not one of the co-partners sign the cer.
tificate without seeing the woman, at the request
of, the other who did ?

Is not the woman SANE ?
Is not the Apothecary who signed the cer-
tificate at the instance of his copartner, without
seeing the woman, prosecuted at the instance of
the Commissioners in Lunacy ?—and
Is not the other Apothecary who having seen
the woman, signed the certificate, and then pre-
vailed on his copartner to do the like, allowed
to escape ?

Does the law take no cognizance of such an of-
offence as conspiracy ? and do the Commissioners
admit without an argument, that any couple of Mad
Doctors, or even Apothecaries, who find it to
their advantage to sign certificates of insanity,
may legally incarcerate the sane subjects of the
ICING at their discretion, if they but take the
precaution first to see the victim

The Police reports on Tuesday last contain a
melancholy case of a respectable lady, who stated
herself to be the wife of a gentleman, and the
mother of ten children, saved from committing an
act of self destruction by the Police, which she
had been induced to contemplate, to avoid re-
turning to one of those abodes of wretchedness,
a Mad-house, from which she had escaped, but
who, during the time she was at the Police-
office, spoke in a perfectly rational manner,
and exhibited no symptoms of insanity ! ! It
would be assuming a great deal to assume that
this unfortunate lady was, or ever had been,
insane ; certainly an attempt to escape from, or a
reluctance to return to, one of those abodes of
misery, a lunatic receptacle, such as they have
been proved to be, is no proof of insanity, what-
e'er the troop of Mad Doctors may say or swear
On such a subject ; at any rate, under the present
system, the public can have no satisfactory evi-
.denee that this unhappy person may not have
been incarcerated on a certificate signed by Mad
Doctoi.s, or some nameless Apothecary, without
having been seen by either ; or, even if seen,
that she even was otherwise than sane, if
Doctors are absolved from all responsibility,
however false or corrupt their certificates, by
Merely seeing the unfortunate beings they incar-
cerate.

An advertisement obtained insertion in our
columns of yesterday (which could hardly be
considered serious on any other subject) for a
`Mad Doctor ; or, as it is there expressed, a
Scotch Doctor," though why this term should
have been used we know not, as the highest
medical talent has been frequently displayed by
persons educated in Scotland, where it is gene-
rally admitted the opportunities of acquiring
medical science are greater than in any other
quarter of the United Kingdom. A Doctor,
however, appears to be wanted in Ireland,
as a partner, to conduct an old-established
Lunatic Asylum, under the " new system."
The advertisers state, " they can clearly
" shew the profits will be six hundred
per cent. without risk"—and " the Doctor
" can have a horse to hunt two days in the
" Week" I! ! It seems that Ireland is admitted
10 the full benefit of the Union by Mad Doctors.
We never doubted that the profits of this wretched
trade were enormous to those who condescended
to embark in it, but were never before admitted
So fully into " the secrets of the prison
house." Six hundred per cent. profit with-
out risk, and the Doctor may have a horse
10 hunt two days in the week ! !—and this is
the new system! Really, these things would
be past credence, if facts, shamelessly and al-
most daily exposed, did not place them beyond
the possibility of being doubted. We scarcely
dare trust ourselves to make observations, but
we should ill discharge the duty we owe the
Public, if we hesitated to aver that the empirical
race of Mad Doctors and Receptacle-keepers
are a disgrace to the honourable profession to
which they impudently affect to ally themselves,
--to.the nation that endures them,—to the Go-
vernment that permits them, and the system
that generates them, to have an existence.