The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-26 00:00:00

such a very conspicuous position, as Secretary of
the London Lord's-day Society, it is merely neces-
sary to remind the public that the principal mem-
bers of the deputation were from Newcastle, to
disclose the religious hypocrisy of the whole tran-
saction. From Newcastle ! where so many wretched
beings, not less benighted in soul than in body, are
kept toiling like beasts of burden underground in the
coal pits, without any regerd to the recurrence of the
Sabbath, or of the Sunday, from Christmas to Christ-
mas. It is the parable of the mote and the beam
realised. Get you back to your districts of collieries
you Reverend and Ir-reverend members of the New-
castle Deputation, and render your own neighbour-
hood reputable before you presume to come preaching
your mock morality to the population of the three
Kingdoms ! Cleanse your own consciences before
you arrogate to yourselves the right of purifying the
lives of the general community ! Remove from
yourselves the odium of your own short-comings
before you have the insolence to foist your own
spurious doctrines of sanctity upon the mass of an in-
telligent empire ! Think not that in the middle of
the nineteenth century the million can swallow a
species of cant so gross, that at the very sight of it
the soul of SURFACE would have sickened and the
stomach of CANTWELL have revolted. Thank GOD
the time for superstitution has gone by, and not all
the galvanic experiments of the Sabbatarian conspi-
racy can lead to its resuscitation. Majorities of nine
may be gained in the House of Commons, but the
people are, nevertheless, not to be deceived by peti-
tions, or humbugged by deputations, or bamboozled
by the sophistical arguments of the sanctimonious.
It is maintained that by carrying such a measure
as the one rejected last evening, the Legislature
would be doing violence to the consciences of the
religionists. As if those religionists were not a
most paltry minority ! And as if by conceding to
their requirements we should not be doing most
grievous violence to the vast majority—their anta-
gonists! Again, it is insisted that the prevention of
travelling on the Sundays is essential for the regenera-
tion of the community, although the criminal
returns prove that vice and depravity are fourteen per
cent. greater in Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, and
Eslinburghshire, than in Yorkshire, Lancashire and
Middlesex 1 It is declared by the Sabbatarians that
their aim is the prevention of the desecration of Sun-
days by the diminution of labour. And yet in the
face ef this it is demonstrated by unanswerable sta-
tistics that the stopping of the line between Glasgow
and Edinburgh has conduced to a very demoralizing
consumption of malt liquors and ardent spirits on
days that might otherwise have been innocently em-
ployed in rambling through the fields and between
the hedgerows ! It is shown, moreover, by the most
i simple calculations that the system of obstructing the
lines of the Scottish railways on Sundays, instead of
diminishing the manual labour of the inhabitants
of Scotland, has tended materially to its increase—
stage-coaches, postchaises, flies, cabs, steam-boats,
hacks, gigs, and other conveyances, being called into
requisition, besides the guards, stokers, engine-
drivers, gatekeepers, and pointsmen required in con-
nexion with the working of the mail-trains. Mr.
LOCKE himself declared yesterday, on the floor of the
Commons, that while on the same occasion the pas-
sengers arriving by the Caledonian Railway only
employed five cabs, he himself had, on Easter Sun-
day, seen in waiting at four churches in the Lothian-
road, in Edinburgh, thirty-one two-horse carriages,
thirteen one-horse carriages, and one hundred and
forty-nine cabs ! So much for the consistency, the
truth, the decency of these highly moral sticklers
for periodical sobriety. So much for their precepts,
and so much, just so much and no more, for
their example! Out of the sixteen railways
intersecting the shires of Scotland it would seem
that at the present moment eight are working and
eight are not working passenger trains alung their
lines on Sundays—the former moiety comprising an
extent of 280 and the latter an extent of 240 miles.
Taking the distinction between these companies given
to them by the Hon. Member for the city of Dublin,
the reasoning is inevitable, that while the 1,623,000
persons who travelled by the irreligious railways
" were driving at a railway pace to a place that shall
be nameless," the 1,572,000 persons who journeyed
within the same interval along- the religious railways
were going at an equally smart pace along the path
leading directly to salvation. Or, following out the
supplemental argument of Mr. RErNOLDS, the
logic of which is impassable, if the thing
be looked upon as culpable in one quarter,
and is not culpable in another, then,
morality must be regarded as a mere conventionality,
and sin must be looked upon as geographical.
In conclusion, we earn these fanatical pretenders
to godliness from the prosecution of their endeavour
to obstruct the railways throughout Scotland ; and
we earnestly put to them the simple, but touching
and beautiful application of that expression of
a great poet, which was yesterday repeated by the
Hon. Gentleman the Representative of Honiton
(notwithstanding its being so hackneyed by quota-
tion)—we put it to them whether they will not
elevate the hearts, and purify the morals, and in-
crease the religious fervour of the working classes
by enabling them to pass on their only day of leisure
from the fetid impurities of our large manufacturing
towns into the green lanes and meadows, there to
commune with the CIIZATOR through his creations,

and to

assistance. The; unfortunate gentleman treated the
supposition of his unsoundness of mind as a palpable I
absurdity; :he considered the charge as unworthy
of a serious defence. The result may easily be anti-
cipated. He was declared a lunatic, of unsound
mind, incapable of taking charge of his own affairs,
and he remained for some time a prisoner, under the
strictest .surveillance. The circumstances of the case,
however, attracted the attention of a gentleman
who had filled an important situation at Delhi, where
for six years he had been in constant official and
social communication with the BEGUM ; and he lost
not a moment in directing the attention of the East
India Company to the case. On the 19th August,
1843, shortly after the jury had returned their verdict,
Sir CHARLES TREVELYAN forwarded a communica-
tion to the Board of Directors, in which, in the clearest
and most satisfactory manner, he demonstrated that the
jury might have arrived at an erroneous conclusion, and
he submitted, that under the entire circumstances of the
case " immediate steps should be taken fur the pur-
pose of obtaining justice, or, if it should prove, on a
full and proper investigation that, contrary to his
belief, justice had already been done, of satisfying
the minds of all persons, both in this country and in
India, and in other parts of the world, who might take
the same general views of the case, which he himself
had taken."

These disinterested exertions, so highly honourable
to Sir CHARLES TREVELYAN, were, however, ren-
dered unavailing, by the escape of Mr. DYCE SOMBRE
from the durance to which he had been subjected.
The unfortunate gentleman fled to France, to enjoy
that liberty which was denied to him in England. He
was net, however, suffered to remain unmolested ;
an application was made to the French Government
to surrender him as an escaped lunatic, that he might
again be subjected to the strictest incarceration in a
mad-house, where he had committed the highest
offence known to " keeper law," and where his treat-
ment would in consequence have probably been of
the harshest character. This attempt was, however,
defeated. The French authorities refused to sur-
render Mr. SOMBRE without being fully satisfied as
to his actual condition, and it was accordingly re-
ferred to some of the most eminent physicians to in-
quire and report on the state of his mind. These
gentlemen, after a close and searching investigation,
stated their opinion to be that he was of perfectly
sound mind, able to govern his own affairs. He
was, therefore, freed from all personal coercion,
so long as he was satisfied to remain out of
England; but he was left without means or resources,
notwithstanding the large fortune that was accumu-
lating for the benefit of his successors, or next of kin,
in the English Court of Chancery. Being anxious,
however, to obtain additional evidences as to his
sanity Mr. SOMBRE travelled to St. Petersburgb,
where he obtained a similar certificate from ten of
the most distinguished medical men of the Russian
metropolis—a certificate which was further confirmed
by Belgian physicians, whose opinions were taken on
the subject.
Armed with such powerful testimony, Mr.lSolaux,
in January, 1846, presented a second petition to the
Court of Chancery for a supersedeas of the Commis-
sion of Lunacy (that which had previously been filed
having been rejected by Lord LYNDHURST). Drs.
BRIGHT and SOUTHEY were appointel to examine
and report on his condition, he being secured by the
order of the Court against any attack upon his per-
sonal liberty pending the examination. These
learned gentlemen differed from the physicians of
Paris, of St. Petersburgh, and of Belgium. They
reported that it would be unsafe to himself and
others to withdraw from him the protection (Y)
of the Court of Chancery. They, however, recom-
mended that, as he seemed "perfectly to understand
the nature and extent of his property," his allowance
should be enlarged, and the payments made with
greater punctuality, and that any small debts he might
have contracted should also be discharged. Subsequent
petitions v, ere presented and various examinations held.
After a searching examination at Brighton, in
August, 1847, the same Drs. BRIGHT ar d SOUTHEY
reported that they " were bound to admit that they
were unable to elicit any positive delusions," though,
at the same time, they regretted to add that they
" felt no confidence that he was entirely free from such
delusions." They also added this remarkable pas-

sage :
" So far as respects the management of property, we en-
tertain no doubt of his competency to take care of it, and we
think that if he were entrust:d with the iurplus of his
unappropriated income, one great cause of uneasiness
would be removed; for there seems mu doubt that much
painful feeling has rankled in Mr. Dyce Sombre's mind
from the reduction of his allowance to an amount so
much below the rate of
,expenditure at which he for-
merly lived."
Ilere, then, a gentleman, who had been pronounced
by the most eminent professional men of France, of
Russia, and of Belgium to ba of perfectly sound
mind and competent to conduct his own affairs, from
whom the doctors selected by the LORD CHANCEL-
LOR were unable to elicit any positive delusions,
about whose perfect competency with respect to the
management of property they entertained no doubt
whatsoever, is still branded as a lunatic—obliged to
remain an exile from the land of his adoption, and
deprived of that perfect liberty of action
which is the right of every free-born man,
soley because those " skilful persons" could " feel
no confidence that he was entirely free from such
delusions." If this be indeed the rule, we can scarcely
conceive ss hat evidence would be sufficient to satisfy
such fastidious gentlemen; nothing could be detected
to indicate unsoundness of mind, or the existence of
delusion ; but a lurking suspicion remained behind, and
therefore he was still deprived of his natural liberty,
and of the control and management of his princely
fortune. We should like to see the manner in which
the judge of a criminal tribunal would receive such
evidence if it were set up as a defence to a capital
charge. It was, however, sufficient to retain the
" alleged lunatic" within the meshes of the Court of
Chancery. Other petitions were subsequently pre-
sented, to which our space will not enable us to
allude more fully, but with no better result. Doctors
BRIGHT and SOUTHEY could not be convinced of the
removal of delusions, and till they were satisfied no-
thing could be done. At length a final effort was
resolved on. Doctors PARIS, President of the Col-
lege of Physicians ; MAYO; Sir ALEXANDER MORI-
SON, Physician to Bethlehem Hospital, and to the
Surry County Lunatic Asylum ; COPELAND ; FER-
GUSON, Physician to the QUEEN; and COSTELLO, the
talented proprietor of the Wyke House Lunatic
Asylum, were requested to examine the mental state
of Mr. DYCE SOMBRE in the month of December
last, and after the strictest scrutiny and repeated
examinations of the patient, and consultations with
each other, these gentlemen arrived at the unanimous
conclusion that Mr. SOMBRE was of "sound mind, and
competent to manage his person and property." A
petition was accordingly presented founded on this
report, and verified by the affidavits not only of
those six eminent physicians, but of many other gen-
tlemen well acquainted with Oriental habits and pecu-
liarities, which fully explained the nature of the
' opinions that had been characterised as delusions.
The decision of the Court was given on Friday, as we
have already stated, and we have seen -with what
result. The petition was dismissed, no further appeal
to a jury was granted. Even protection to
reside in England was not allowed, nor
was he permitted to appear before the Master
either personally or by his solicitor and
counsel in the inquiries, and on the taking of the
accounts respecting the management, care, and appli-
cation of his real and personal estate and effects—
this reasonable request being rejected, although Drs.
BRIGHT and SOUTHEY, in whom the most implicit
confidence was reposed by the Loan CHANCELLOR,
" could entertain no doubt as to his competency with
respect to the management of property."
These are facts worthy of notice, facts that indi-
cate the necessity of an immediate alteration in the
law of lunacy, and the extension of the benefit of
" trial by jury" to those who are alleged to be
labouring under mental delusion.

One of the most gratifying festivities in which the
present Administration has taken any conspicuous
part must assuredly have been the sumptuous banquet
given yesterday evening, at the Alansion-house, to
the members of her MAJESTY'S Government,
by the Right Hon. the LORD MAYOR. Every
circumstance united to enhance the satisfaction of
the statesmen entertained at the hospitable board
of the first Magistrate of the capital. In the LORD
MAYOR of London they met one who had 19123