The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-13 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1842.

Among the many evils resulting from the Cacoethes
Loquendi with which certain Members of the House
of Commons were afflicted during the course of the
past session, one, and that not the least in importance,
has been the forced postponement of many measures,
the immediate passing of which was absolutely neces-
sary for the redress of crying grievances, or for the
protection of the liberty of the subject. First in im-
portance among these is a measure for amending the
law of lunacy, and we had hoped that even if it had
been found impossible to pass such a law during the
last session, we should at least have had an inquiry
Wore a Select Committee into the working of the
present law, so as have had some data on which to
found a measure for the amendment of the law,
during the course of the ensuing session. The ne-
cessity for the immediate institution of such an in-
quiry is bbcoming every day more apparent ; and it
is also abundantly evident that nothing short of a
Parliamentary inquiry will be sufficient. No redress
is to be expected from the Executive. The decision

of Lord DENMAN in Mrs. SHUTTLEWORTH'S case is,
so far as alleged lunatics are concerned, a virtual re-
peal, not only of the law of Habeas Corpus, but of
the safeguards (weak enough in all conscience)
which the Act of 8 and 9 Victoria, cap. 100, throws
around the unfortunate person who is incarcerated
on a charge of insanity, and leaves all such entirely
at the mercy of the Commissioners. Any at-
tempt to procure an inquiry into the conduct
of the Commissioners by application to the Home-
office, or to the Chancellor, is worse than useless.
The Commissioners are looked upon as part and
parcel of the system of bureaucracy, of which the
Home Secretary is the chief, and therefore he covers
them with his official shield, and, however strong may
be the case made out against them,:to the Home
Secretary, " there does not appear to be the slightest
ground of complaint." Such was the answer of Sir
G. GREY to an application drawing his attention to a
case in which, to use the words of the secretary of
the Alleged Lunatics' Friend Society, who made
the application, " the law has been plainly and
confessedly violated," and one of her Majesty's
subjects has been unjustly and illegally deprived of his
liberty for eighteen months. The case, which is an
admirable illustration of the working of the certificate
system, and of the systematic manner in which mad-
house keepers and their medical satellites habitually
break the provisions of the law, and of the slovenly
and careless way in which the duty of inspection is
performed by the Commissioners, is as follows :—ln
the month of November, 1846, a gentleman applied to
the superintendent of a lunatic asylum in the country
to take his uncle (who resided in the neighbourhood,
of Letild'n')
and have him confined as a patient. The
gentleman gave the superintendent an order, filled up
in the usual form on such occasions, in which it is
stated, agreeably to the schedule of the Act Bth and
9th VICTORIA, cap 10
Preventing ent being examined
tioners. The au the patient
perCternatdelY by two medical practi-
ent, however, notwithstand_
ing this statement, which appears on the face of the
an
order, sent oncerthi tficate
e samewh. aa3tr, without having had
y medical
lodgings of the allegea lunaetiveer a keeper to thel the neighbour-
nitihneenatlleged lunatic
hood of London, who seized'
remonstrances of his
by force, and in spite of the re
friends, conveyed him to the lunatic
country. This was done, it was alleged, arat
thein the.
stance of the gentleman who gave the order, in which
under his own hand, he solemnly declared, that "there'
were no special circumstances preventing the patient
being examined before admission by two medical prac-
titioners."

Arrived at the asylum in the country, he was
examined by one medical practitioner, and shut up
for the night. The next morning he was examined
in the asylum by another country medical practitioner.