The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-18 00:00:00

CHARGES OF LUNACY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth ensue
But moody, moping, and dull melancholy,
Akin to grim and comfortless despair,
And at her heels a huge infectious troop
Of pale distemperatures and foes to Iife.—SHAKSPEARE.

ESTEEMED SIR—You have proved the purity, potency,
and utility, of a free, intelligent, Press, and one temporary
victim, Mr. PATERNOSTER, now enjoys his invaluable pri-
vilege of liberty ! But are the dungeons searched by the
friends of humanity, and every pitiable captive rescued ? Is
the abominable system broken, and is security insured ?
Not yet ! our work is not perfected, and although I will
not say " nothing is done while anything remains to be
done," still we must not stay our hand until a full remedial
inquiry has prepared evidence, and AN ACT OF PARLIA-
MENT is passed preventing a recurrence of the evils re-
ferred to in my four letters to you. I have a great quantity
of matter, and have made up my mind to submit it in brief
sketches to the public, as my leisure will allow ; in the mean-
time, I put the questions—are E NORMOUS sums of money to
be voted to public Lunatic Establishments, and no impar-
tial, humane, just investigation to be set on foot ? It will be
seen that a new wing is to be made to Bethlem, and I was
horror-struck to read in a police report in a newspaper that
a gentleman (who said he had been at the dinner in com-
memoration of laying the foundation stone, and had taken
too much CLARET) was locked up for the night, and fined
five shillings for drunkenness. I think it possible the funds
of the Institution paid for the repast. Colonel Clitheroe
has, I find, given notice to the Middlesex Magistrates of a
motion for a large grant for Hanwell. Ought not a jury
of men of integrity be called to look into these matters, or
are they to be select affairs ? What has become of the
newly married young man who, about February last, was
torn from his wife by his relations, although she strongly
persisted, before Magistrates, he was not insane ? Let
these points be considered as they should be by disinterested,
uninfluenced persons, and let those who have perused Vir-
gil's tEneid picture to themselves the horrors of a mad-
house, as Virgil's description of the infernal regions will as-
sist in doing :

He who can tell
With what degrees of zeal we should defend
Our COUNTRY, Fathers, Brother, or a Friend,
Secure of Honour, he may boldly write,
For he is sure to draw the image right.—HORACE.
Knowing we must succeed, if we firmly persevere
rely on your unabating zeal, and am,
"

Esteemed Sir, yours most respectfully,
16th Oct., 1838. HUMANITY.
[We may add that Mr. Griffiths, on whose presumed in-
sanity, because he wrote a silly letter about George IV.,
Sir David Scott, of Brighton notoriety, obtained two pen-
sions on the Civil List, still remains, we believe, shut up in
Bedlam, a victim of scandalous machinations. He has been
there several years, without any just cause, except it be a
just cause to make out a case for getting a pension, of
which the recipient is proved, even on the Chancellor of the
Exchequer's Pension Committee, to have been unworthy.
Our Lunatic Asylums are Bastiles and doctors' certificates
letters de cachet.—ED]
NE

W HACKNEY CARRIAGE OFFICE

(FROM A CORRESPONDENT RESIDING IN THE ADELPHL)
Since the opening of this Office in Adam-street, a most in-
tolerable nuisance has arisen in the congregation of all the
omnibus drivers, hackney coachmen, cab drivers, and water-
men of the Metropolis, together with all their "pals," patrons,
and dependants, both innumerable and dissolute. The assem-
blage of this class of persons is an admitted nuisance in the far
more limited scale of a coach-stand ; I leave you to judge then,
Sir, what has been the wretched state of annoyance to which
we have been subjected by the infliction of this Licensing
Office upon us—an infliction amounting, as regards the female
part of our neighbourhood, to absolute imprisonment. The
lawless conduct—the utter disregard to decency—the shout..
ings and hootings—and, above all, the blasphemous and exe-
crable language with which, on every side, one's ears are con-
stantly assailed, is a matter which, as the head of a family, I
feel, in common with my neighbours, far too momentous to pass
over in silence. The very ingress, as well as egress, to our
houses has been obstructed ; and, although additional police con-
stables have been in attendance, they have been unable to abate
the annoyance, though their presence, perhaps, has checked
further violence. Mr. D. W. Harvey will himself bear wit-
ness as to character, for he stated at a public meeting that he
had refused to license from one thousand to fifteen hundred
of these persons on account of their having been convicted of
crime.

Lord John Russell has been memorialized on the subject,
but, I regret to say, as yet without effect. Why not remove
the Office to the Palace Court, Scotland-yard? This Court
is now used only one day a week, the situation every way de-
sirable, and offering facilities which the present Office cannot
possibly possess.