The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-07 00:00:00

Until% Vint

LONDON, MONDAY: MAY 7, 1849.

rything is in preparation for the election, on
y next, of that Legislative Chamber which is
de the destinies of the French Republic. Of
, there are all kinds of sinister forebodings
;idious insinuations on the part of those very
ous and most unscrupulous gentlemen, the
.era of the reactionary movement. " The
population,"—say they, wagging their heads,
no longer to be humbugged by those demo-
sophisms which were wont formerly to dazzle
.o obedience. The departments will no
submit to the dictation of the capital.
multitude is not again to be surprised
e passive and bewildered acceptance of repub_
rn, as in February. A junta of insolent and
conspirators will no more be permitted to
er over thirty-five millions of people, startled
m into a state of obsequious bewilderment.
sm, communism, sodality, the rights of labour,
se profound and mystical dogmas, which were
opounded in joke and afterwards in earnest by
JACQUES ROUSSEAU, stink in the nostrils of
amunity. Anarchy is to be repudiated at all
That the inhabitants of the French depart-
are resolved upon. That they will
They will save France from the
fluence of the demagogues who in the early
of last year juggled the country out of its
by a sort of political legerdemain. Those
who in the February of 1848 effected a bur-
ls entrance into the national palaces, who
the authority of Government from a panic-
n Administration, who expelled the Legislature
ie assistance of a few hired bayonets—are now
eve of being for ever deprived of the opportu-

if playing over again their desperate game
s szard, and are being conquered and
ated (poor fools !) by means of their
vaunted panaceas the ballot-box and
Al suffrage !" Such is the language used
apologists of that rotten system, the monarchical
of Bourbon idiots and of Orleans' swindlers,
tem of toadies, and place hunters, and match-
, and duellists, and assassins, and debaucbees, the
which produced the Teste robberies, the
sllon ruffianism, the Sophy Dawes plots, the
al Praslin murders ! We are told, forsooth,
:enchmen are no longer to be cheated out of
pits as in February ; but that the departments
rough the ballot and the franchise, declare for
d days of LOUIS PHILIPPE rather than for the
is of the Provisional Government !
are there men so silly, so demented, so
1 by their own prejudices, as to believe that
11 in existence can swallow such stuff
The Good Days of LOUIS PHILIPPE ! The
Lys of the Provisional Government ! That is
:cast harped upon perpetually by the reaction-
With the first they associate Order; with
•ond Anarchy. To the first, with a sublime
y, they attribute every virtue, every truth,
ry honesty. To the second, with a match-
egation of facts, tht'y apply all those epithets
;orrence which are exclusively uttered in
ce to crime, to falsehood, and to corruption.
man must be silly, indeed, who can listen

with any patience to such trash as is here talked by
the leaders'and organs of the reactionary movement.
Why, history gives the lie to every one of their asser-
tions. They talk of the crimes of the Provisional
Government, while the homage of the world is still
resounding over Europe for the magnanimity of those
great men who saved France from a bloody cata:•
trophe, and the continent from an awful
and destroying convulsion who shed not
one drop of blood when the passions of the
multitude were wholly at their bidding who
saved their bitterest antagonists from the death they
had richly merited for their atrocities by the noblest
decree that every emanated from the rulers of a great
people. They talk of the crimes of the Provisional
Government—when the immortal members of that
Government rescued France from destruction by
their own insulated and unassisted courage—
when they preserved peace with the rest of the
world—restored order to their own land, and,
as a magnificent token of their want of
selfishness, resigned their extraordinary powers
into the hands of that Assembly which they
themselves had called into existence, descending
from the pomp of sovereignty to the simplicity of
citizenship. A vast deal has been said about the
peculations of M. LEDRU Ronnisi, about the weak-
ness of M. DE LAMARTINE, about the incompetence
of M. ARAGO, about the insane ideas of M. Louis
BLANC, and about the terrorist designs of Caussi-
DIERE—aII, be it observed, with the view of casting
odium upon the ProvLional Gwernment. And yet
the accuracy of these insinuations as to the
corruption of M. LEDRU ROLLIN has never
yet been proven ! And yet the weakness
of M. DE LAMARTINE did not prevent him from
risking his life again and again in February, when
hurling back the red flag in the teeth of an infuriated
rabble; it did not prevent him from repulsing the
advances of the Irish deputation in March; it did not
prevent him from repelling the thousand and one
conspirators and intriguers in April; it did not pre-
vent him from defying the armed rebels who demanded
war in the name of Poland during Nifty ; it did not pre-
vent him from riding on horseback from the doors of the
Council Chamber against the diabolical insurgents of
June, and charging the barricad-s, side by side with
General CAVAIGNAC ! And yet the incompetence of
M. ARAGO to fulfil the duties of administration did
not prevent him, a philosopher, from conducting both
the naval and military departments together, and from
doing so in such a manner as to bring both the army
and the navy of the Republic into the most flourish-
ing condition ! Ara yet the so called chimerical
ideas of M. Louis BLANC, those ideas which
led, in one instance to the establishment
of the much-abused Ateliers Nationaux, have never
yet conduced to anything beyond the adoption of
truths which were acknowledged by the laws of
ELIZABETH I And yet the terrorist designs of M.
CAUSsIDIERE never revealed themselves, as far as
evidence has yet shown, further than in the preser-
vation of municipal regularity in the midst of
popular excitement ! Such are the falsehoods with
which the reactionnaires are endeavouring to play
over again their old game of duplicity ! Such
are the arguments, " heaven save the mark,"
by which they are striving to cram M. GUIZOT—
the man of Ghent, the ASTUTIO of LUDOVICK the
Vandal—down the throats of a gaping population !
If we are to believe their very veracious organs, our
contemporaries, France is about to expiate her glo-
rious outburst in February, 1848, by electing a
motley assemblage of legislators of all shades and
diversities of opinion, as her legislators in May, 1849.
Among these they already predict the election of
ex .Ministers and ex-Princes, of Orleanists and
Bourbonists, of upholders of the Regency and
of the Restoration, of every knave, vagabond or
gentleman, who shows on his part a resolute
hatred of Republicanism. Supposing this were
really to prove the case, then would France be the
victim in truth of the most atrocious conspiracy,
then would her sons prove themselves unworthy of
her great destiny, then would they show themselves
incapable of appreciating those illustrious statesmen
who, after saving France from terrorism in February,
left behind them, as a legacy, the abolition of capital
punishment for political offences, and the permanent
establishment of universal suffrage. But No I France
has deliberately declared herself for Republicanism,
and she has consecrated Republicanism under the
glorious name of NAPOLEON !

We cannot but congratulate our friends and fellow

labourers on the immense progress which the cause
of reform of the lunacy laws has recently made. It
is now little more than two years since Lord DENMAN
thought it right to pooh pooh out of court those who
came forward as the defenders of an alleged lunatic,
and declared that whenever two " skilful persons"
had certified that a person was lunatic, he would not
release that person albeit the certificate might have
been given in violation of the Act of Parliament; accom-
panying this dictum by some not very complimentary
observations on those who had taken up the cause of
the alleged lunatic. How different is the state of
affairs now. We no longer hear of the impropriety
of the interference of strangers in the affairs of an
alleged lunatic. We have no longer dinned into our
ears a dreary series of prosy common-places asser-
ting the infallibility and impeccability of " skilful
persons," and the immaculate purity of the motives
which actuate those relatives who authorise the in-
carceration for life of alleged lunatics. How different
was the language of the LORD CHANCELLOR in giving
judgment in the case of the ARsTIES, a week since, to
that of Lord DENMAN ill the case of Mrs. SHUTTLE
WORTH, some eighteen months since. The unfortunate
subjects of the inquiry, PETER SHARP ANSTIE and
HENRY ANSTIE, have been for some years past in-
mates of the Fishponds Asylum, near Bristol, the
management of which has been so frequently of late
the subject of comment and investigation. Of their
lunacy there can be no doubt. The father, on hi..
death, left them 3501. per annum each, which, so long
as their brother BENJAMIN ANSTIE lived was devoted to
their maintenance, but on his death, which
happened in 1843, the other members of the
family, nine in number, agreed to diminish the al-
lowance for the lunatics to 1101., and to divide among
themselves the surplus ; "and one of the parties,"
said Mr. Mamss, who conducted the case in Chancery
for the Alleged Lunatics' Friend Society, " one of the
parties receiving these moneys, sanctioning these
proceedings, and probably advising them, was a
brother-in-law of the lunatic's, a Mr. GRACE SMITH,
a barrister, and a person who had been thought
worthy of receiving an appointment from his
Lordship of a judge of the recently constituted
County Courts." A righteous judge, truly
This Mr. GRACE SMITH is, if we mistake not,
connected by marriage with the keeper
of the asylum, Dr. BOMPASS, and took an active part
in his defence during the recent proceedings before
the Court of Quarter Sessions at Gloucester. The
Messrs. As;sne, who had previously had separate
rooms and separate attendants, and had been per-
mitted to enjoy all the comforts that persons in their
situation could enjoy, were now, in consequence of
this diminution in their allowance, " confined in the
day time with a common labouring farmer in a small
room, opening on a gravelled court-yard, which is
surrounded by a wall of twelve feet high, and kept
in a most filthy and disgusting condition. The room
had deal chairs and a deal table, and the court was
somewhat like a stable-yard. This was their day-
room. They had separate bedrooms, only seven feet
high, but they were in all respects treated as persons
who were indifferent to light or life, and destitute of
the feelings of humanity. Dr. GILBERT LYON said that
they were kept in a dismal room. Dr. O'BRYEN said
the same, and they agreed that air, exercise, change
of situation, and the attendance of a servant was much
wanted, and would be most beneficial to them.
One of the witnesses said he was of opinion that both
the brothers were imbecile, but he thought their con-
dition capable of much improvement ; and as a proof
that they were not so degraded in the scale of human
beings as they were represented to be, he instanced
the fact of one of them, HENRY, being capable of com-
parison, for he said that in passing across the yard he
pointed out to him a plant, and azked the name of it.
The lunatic replied Laurestinus, and he was able to
distinguish it from another of the same leaf, and to say
it was a flowering one. lie was also able to name
the lavender plant, although at that season it had no
leaf, and he pointed out the primrose. It was idle,
therefore, to say that these unhappy persons, who
were only taken out once a month, were incapable of

enjoying the green fields and the sunshine. It was
because they were neglected by their relatives, and
by those who were bound by nature and duty to pro-
vide for their happiness and comfort, that they had
become open to the imputation of being reduced to
such a condition that it was incapable of any improve-
ment."
In this state they were discovered by Mr. PURNELL,
the indefatigable Chairman of the Gloucestershire
Quarter Sessions, to whose exertions in the cause of
humanity we have already frequently had to bear
testimony. He communicated the case to the Alleged
Lunatics' Friend Society, who immediately instructed
Mr. BAILEY, their Secretary, to petition:the Court of
Chancery for a commission de lunatico, in ;order to
place these unfortunate gentlemen under the protec-
tion of the Court. This petition was filed in the
month of February ; in the month of March the
relatives of the lunatics filed a counter petition,
praying to have the conduct of the commission,
and the LORD CHANCELLOR, having heard. Mr.
ROLT on behalf of the relatives, without waiting
for the reply of Mr. MALINS, who arseared
for the society, gave judgment in favour of Mr.
BAILEY'S petition, thus rescuing the lunatics from
the relatives, and placing them under the protection
of the society. In giving his judgment, his Lordship
spoke of the alleged Lunatics' Friend Society in the
highest terms. He said " the question veal as to the
carriage of the commission. Mr. BAILEY was a
stranger, and alleged to be Me secretary of a society
for the Protection of Lunatics. That fact did not
diminish his claim, for the society appeared to ue one
which, he was sorry to say, was required, notwith-
standing the unceasing efforts of the Legislature, and
of those to whom the execution of the provisions of its
enactments were entrusted ;" while, in speaking of the
relatives of the lunatics, his Lordship said, " he could
not pass over the conduct of t:t e parties asking for
the commission on the pao Of the family. If he
did so, it would go F forth to the world
that relatives might with impunity reduce the
allowance to lunatics to the lowest scale con-
sistent with the maintenance of life. It would
be most dangerous if such an opinion should
get abroad, or that it should be supposed that such a
course could be followed with impunity ; and there-
fore, without saying more on the other parts of the
case, be thought that the friends of the lunatics were
not entitled to the carriage of the commission, and
that Mr. BAILEY, although a stranger, had made out
a case to warrant the Court in granting the prayer of
his petition. The petition of the other side must be
dismissed with costs."
The language of the LORD CHANCELLOR in 1849,
when compared with the language of the LORD CHIEF
JUSTICE in 184 G, presents a striking contrast,which can-
not but be gratifying to every friend of humanity. The
LORD CHANCELLOR will not, however, we trust, leave
this good work but half complete. From 1843 to 1849
these unfortunate gentlemen the Messrs. ANSTIE
have been kept in the state above described. What
were his Lordship's officers, the Commissioners
of Lunacy, doing during the wholes of
this time, that they never discovered this
shocking state of things ? How comes it that
it was left io strangers to inform his Lordship of the
state of the Messrs. Arena, when he has officera of his
own, whose business it is to inspect every private 1 unatic
asylum twice in every year, and to report on the state
thereof? What must be the nature of an inspection
which, twelve times repeated, could leave such a case
undiscovered ? What is such an inspection but "a
mockery, a delusion, and a snare ?" We trust that

his Lordship will cause an investigation to be made

into the manner in which the Commissioners have
performed their duties of inspection, so far as the
Fishponds Asylum is concerned.
The results of the investigation by the Gloucester-
shire magistrates into the manner in which the
Fishponds Asylum bas been conducted appear to
have roused the Commissioners into an unwonted fit
of activity, and on Friday they actually moved in the
Bsil Court for a writ of haber4 corpus to bring up
the body of a young lady, the daughter of a baronet.

t appeared from the statement of the counse'

that " the young lady had been insane, and
had been in confinement at the house of Dr. Surnaa-
LAND. After being there some time, Dr. S UTIXER.•
LAND prevailed on the mother of the young lady to
remove her, as she had recovered and was quite well.
The young lady was removed, but it appeared instead
of being taken home, she ws taken to the house of a
person of the name of BosTocK, who had for-
merly held some office in Hanwell Asylum.
She was there kept under some restraint, never
being allowed to go out alone, and was not
treated as became her station in life. The Com-
missioners had visited her, and she had told them
that she wished to return home ; that she wished for
society, and to write letters, and communicate with
friends. She also stated that BOSTOCK took liberties
and kissed her in the absence of his wife. The Com-
missioners also examined BOSIOCK, who, after some
hesitation, admitted he had kissed the young lady,
who was thirty years of age. The Commissioners
then communicated with the young lady's mother,
and in the end the young lady was removed. The
Commissioners then wrote to the mother, requiring to
know to what place the young lady had been taken,
but the mother refused to give them any information,
stating that, as her daughter was not insane, she did
not know what right the Commissioners had to inquire
into her private affairs. The Commissioners, there-
fore, asked that this writ might go, in order that the
young lady might be asked whether she was willing
to remain where she was."

This application was refused by Mr. Justice
COLERIDGE, on what we cannot but consider most
insufficient grounds. The Learned Judge argued
that as the young lady was no longer insane she was
"no longer under the charge of the Lunacy Commis-
sioners. When the mother heard BosTocx had be-
haved ill she removed her. It was said she had not
been taken home, but the courts of justice would
become a perfect nuisance in the land if they were to
interfere in the affairs of domestic life when it was
supposed that a child was not treated with propriety
or liberality, and if parents were to bs brought into
a court of justice and the secret dealings of the family
were to be ripped open. If a principle of that kind
should be established, nothing would be more mis•
chievous. Another ground was that the mother had
refused to state where the daughter now was. He
agreed that that coupled with other circumstances,
might be a ground for a court to interfere, if there
had been proof of any ill-treatment, or of her having
been improperly put under restraint, but that founda•
tion was wanted, and the mother declined to give the
information because, she said, the Commissioners had
no authority to ask the question."

With all due deference to Mr. Justice COLERIDGE
we contend that, inasmuch as the young lady is not
a minor, neither her mother nor any other person has
any right to deprive her of her liberty, except she be
lunatic. If she be not lunatic, she is unjustly and
illegally deprived of her liberty ; in that case, it is
open to the Commissioners of Lunacy, or to any
other person or persons, to apply to the Court for a
writ of habeas, and Mr. Justice COLERIDGE himself
admits that, if she were lunatic, the Commissioners
would have a right to this rule. If Mr. Justice
COLERIDGE'S law be correct, we must have not only a
society for the protection of alleged lunatics, but a
society for the protection of the liberty of the subject.

We give in another part of our paper an article
from the last number of the Law Review, on the sub-
ject of Lord BROUGHAM'S Bankrupt Law Consolida-
tion Bill, in the observations and in the general tenor of
which we entirely and heartily concur. We have in-
serted from the Bill the Articles 319 and 320 referred
to, and after the best consideration we have been able
to give to them, can adopt no other conclusion than
that come to by the Reviewer. We are free to admit
that the plan propounded by those who object to the
direct power of imprisonment proposed by Lord
BROUGHAM would be an improvement, and a very
great improvement, on the present state of the law ;
but it is very apparent that that plan, in fact, would
only go to increase the chances of a bankrupt's being
punished : there would be no security, no certainty
that hewould be punished at all ; and we consequently
infinitely prefer the more dignified, and the certain
mode of punishment proposed by the Bill, and
agree vs ith the Reviewer in thinking that the capias
would only be made use of as a screw for the purp,,:m
of operating on and harassing the bankrupt and his
relatives and friends, or of obtaining some arrange-
ment or advantage. To charge Lord BROUGHAM