The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-09 00:00:00

his birth—an accident which bad rendered him the
representative of the most remarkable family ot.
modern times. Beyond that, and beyond the cir-
cumstance of his being the author of several ingeni-
ous productions, and of one very profound and saga-
cious treatise relating to the science of the military
profession—LOUlS NAPOLEON BONAPARTE may be
said to have possessed no claims whatever upon the
consideration of the multitude. Ills position at the
present moment is directly different. His claims
upon the respect of the world are supreme and para-
mount they are the claims derived from
the suffrages of seven millions of electors.
Bowing down in homage to the will of a
great people, we respect in the President Louis NAPO-
LEON BONAPARTE the Representative of the sagacity
and the aspirations of Republican France. That he
is embarrassed with difficulties is attributable not to
any want,of capacity on his own part, but rather to
the anterior calamities which have befallen his
I country. Out of a deficit of 20,000,0001. ha cannot
surely be expected to pour opulence into the Treasury
within the space of a fortnight. Out of a numerous
population of destitute and unemployed ouvriers, he
cannot, in common reason, be required to make, in a
couple of months, a community of busy and flourishing
citizens. It is objected against the PRINCE President,
that he has done nothing. But, in the name of Heaven,
what time has he had to do anything ? Four weeks.
Four weeks! And are men then such dolts as to
believe that any statesman, however miraculous his
capabilities for the renovation of the multitude, can,
in four weeks, drag thirty millions of the human race
from an abyss of confusion and destitution ? True,
that discord has been provoked among the holders of
the Ministerial portfolios by the haughty missive ad-
dressed to the Minister of the Interior by the newly
inaugurated PRESIDENT. But let any man, how-
ever conciliatory his disposition, ask himself
if some consideration should not be given to
the indignation naturally aroused in the bosom of the
Chief Magistrate of the Republic, who, elected to his
high office by seven millions of votes, finds himself
treated as a mere puppet by the men entrusted by
him with the seals of administration ? A candid re-
sponse to this question will afford, at least, a partial
justification to the tone of the letter which recently
led to the retirement of M. LEON DE MALLBVILLE.
In scrutinizing the proceedings of President BONA-
PARTE, we should never lose sight of the astounding
difficulties by which his whole Administration is en-
compassed ; we should regard with leniency the
errors into which his bold, but inexperienced tempe-
rament, is occasionally seduced; and, above all, we
should award to him those reasonable sympathies
which were formerly due to him as a child of exile,
but which are now, in the days of his pomp and pros-
perity, more absolutely necessary than in the period
of his misfortunes.

We have hitherto cautiously abstained from
making any allusion to the case of Dr. JOSEPH
CARPENTER BOMPAS, of the Fishponds Lunatic
Asylum, near Bristol, although we have attentively
watched the whole course of the proceedings in this
case from the latter end of June last, when the sub_
ject of the management of that asylum was first
brought under the notice of the public, up to the
present month of January, when, after an investiga-
tion which had lasted many days, Dr. BOMPAS with-
drew his application for a renewal of his
license. In the comments which we feel
ourselves called upon to make on this very
important case, we, at the outset, in order
to guard ourselves from misconstruction, state that it
is not our intention to reflect in the slightest degree
on the professional skill or humanity of Dr. BOMPAS,
as compared with the skill or humanity of other
keepers of private lunatic asylums. We believe that
he is to the full as skilful, to the full as humane, as
any other keeper of a private lunatic asylum, and
that the rishponds Asylum is as well managed as
the great majority of private lunatic asylums in this
country, because, whatever may be the abuses that
have heretofore existed in the management of that
asylum, abuses to the full as- great exist in the
management of almost every other private lunatic
asylum. The fault is the fault of the system
rather than of the man—the fault is more especially
the fault of the Commissioners of Lunacy, who, by
their neglect, actually enticed Dr.' BOMPAS into the
commission of offences against the law, by which he
has subjected himself to heavy penalties. In eighteen
months the superintendent of the Fishponds Asylum
committed, according to the report of the Chairman
of the Gloucestershire Quarter Sessions., 13 misde-
meanours, and in 90 cases incurred penalties to the
amount of 1,7101. ; and yet the Commissioners of
Lunacy, Messrs. MYLNE and TURNER, who visited
the asylum on the 26th of April, 1848, con-
tent themselves with saying, "We must, how-
ever, impress on the proprietor the importance,
or rather the absolute necessity, of a strict observance
of the requirements of the Act of Parliament on that
head." How gingerly do these gentlemen speak of
a breach of the law by which they are appointed. Is
it thus that other functionaries speak of the provisions
of an Act of Parliament which they are appointed to
carry out? But the Metropolitan Commissioners of
Lunacy are not entitled tr) the credit of having given
even this admonition. It was forced from them by
report of the magistrates, Messrs. BATTERSBY, FRIPP,
MIREHOUSE, and Dr. LYON, who, on their visit to the
Fishponds Asylum, on the 25th of April (the day
before the visit of the Commissioners of Lunacy),
made the following entry in the visiting book, which
was of necessity laid before the Commissioners :

" On our last visit, on the 20th of March, we drew the
attention of Dr. Bompas to the necessity of not admit •
ting patients without the certificates of two medical men,
unless is cases of emergency, and, if so, the urgency of
the case should be stated.

" There have been three admissions since we last
visited; two out of the three have been admitted on the
certificate of one medical man, and second certificates
signed by Mr. G-, after the patients had been in cus•
tody of Or. Bompas.
" On the 23d of March Dr. Bompas sands his keepers
to Bath ; tskes Mr. E. F., about eight o'clock in the
evening; puts him into a fly, with a strait-waistcoat,
conveys him to the Asylum, calling on Mr. G-,
surgeon of the neighbourhood. Mr. G-- gets into the
fly, where Mr. E. F. was sitting, and on which interview
he signs the certificate; he is brought hero at 12 o'clock
at night, and Mr. E. F. assures us that he is put to bed
without fire or food. We have examined the patients,
all of whom we have seen, excepting Mr. G. H., who is
taking a walk.
" Mr. E. F. appears calm, tranquil, and rational. We
cannot take upon ourselves the responsibility of suggest-
ing his dismissal upon one interview."
It is not until their attention is directed in an
especial manner to these breaches of the law by the
visiting magistrates, that the Commissioners o
Lunacy deem it necessary to notice the matter,

and then they content themselves with making a
verbal inquiry, and even that, inquiry is not made of
the superintendent himself. The following is their
own account of their conduct in this affair :

" Some explanation was given to us verbally by Mr.
George Bompas, respecting the irregularity or defective
nature of the certificates referred to in the magistrates'
entry yesterday, which, if it had been inserted, as it
should have been, in the original order, would have ob-
viated the defect."

It does not appear very clearly to what this "it"
refers (a knowledge of grammatical construction is
not probably considered a necessary qualification in
a Lunacy Commissioner), but it is abundantly evi-
dent that the Commissioners of Lunacy conduct
their investigations in a culpably careless manner;
that they treat as a matter of little consequence
the observance of the provisions of the Acts of Par-
liament which they are appointed to administer; and
that they thus induce a correspondent carelessness
on the part of the superintendents of lunatic
asylums, who naturally think that the strict observ-
ance of the law is a matter of small importance when
they find these appointed to administer the law so
tightly treat a breach of its provisions. As we pro-
ceed we shall find abundant evidence of the careless
manner in which the Commissioners of Lunacy per-
form their duties, and of the absolute necessity which
exists for an immediate and sweeping reform in the
laws for the regulation of lunatic asylums.
The Fishponds Asylum was founded in the year 1738,
and in 1817 it became the property of Dr. BorxrAs,
sen., the grandson of the founder. Dr. BosirAs,
en., died suddenly towards the latter end of the year
1846, and his license was transferred to his son, Dr.
,JOSEPH CARPENTER BoMPAs, and renewed to him
at the Midsummer Sessions of 1847. On his appli-
cation for a renewal of his license at Midsummer,

1848, the magistrates, having read the report of the
visitors, determined not to renew the license fur
twelve months as usual, but only for three months, in
order to wive Dr. 13oAtrAs an opportunity of secur-