The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-02 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, MAY 2, 1870.

Tin Pull Mall Gazette is rather severe upon the
mad doctors. We do not doubt that there are black
sheep among them—that some are tyrannical, some
even cruel—and that they charge a long price for
looking alter their patients. But we do not see
why they, more than other persons, should be
condemned indiscriminately. The point of our
contemporary's argument is that, inasmuch as the
keeper of an asylum is paid a very heavy yearly sum
so long as a patient is under his care, his pecu-
niary interests will induce him not to cure the
patient. To this we reply that the doctor who never
cures is not likely to have many patients, and that a
mad doctor has the same reasons for treat-
ing his patients fairly and curing them if
he can, as any ordinary medical man
has. Moreover, the medical profession is a
peculiarly honourable one. There is none, save the
clerical, in which so much work is done without
pecuniary reward, done for the love of science, done
for the love of humanity. At the same time

there can be no question that private asylums are not
what they should be. They are often opened by
persons of low station, professional ignorance, and
insufficient means. In the case of very small
asylums, where the removal of one patient
would seriously diminish the income of the master,
there is also a strong temptation—not always resisted

—to detain a patient when the proper reasons for
detention have ceased. To prevent such abuses as
these the Commissioners in Lunacy ought to have
more power. They ought to assure themselves that
the persons opening asylums are qualified by social
position and professional knowledge, and that the
patients are allowed all the comforts and even luxu-
ries which should be secured to them in considera-
tion of the heavy payment which they make. But
the field of inquiry most urgently demanding
the attention of the commissioners, is the public
asylums. The disclosures of the shameful injuries to
which patients have been therein exposed, and which
must have involved the most brutal violence, are
a disgrace to the land in which we live.
Our contemporary has done good service by calling
attention to this almost incredibly horrible state of
things. It is to be hoped that when M.P.'s have
done discussing such matters as Colonel Boxer's
patent, and the appointment of Irish sheriffs, they
will find time to deliver those poor creatures,
so terribly afflicted, from the hands of the men who
were bound by every consideration to be their pro-
tectors, but who have too often been their murderers.

ANOTHER batch of official correspondence respect-
ing- the massacre by brigands in Greece has been
published. Unquestionably no charge of neglect or
lack of vigour can be alleged against either, the
Foreign Office at home, or our embassy
at Athens. Mr. Erskine did all that the
circumstances allowed him to do, and Lord
Clarendon fully supported him. Unfortunately the
very reverse verdict must be passed upon the conduct
of the Greek authorities; their proceedings are con-
spicuous for terrified contusion and misplaced asser-
tion of dignity. The correspondence is not of suffi-
ciently late date to contain any notification
of the murders ; all our news of that dismal denoil-
znent has been received by telegraph; but the negotia-

tions anterior to the massacre are fully detailed, and
sufficiently expose the horrible tomfoolery
by which these lives were muddled away.
The brigands required not only a ransom, but a free
pardon for all past offences. In other words, they
desired to make such terms as would ensure them

the safety of their lives after the booty was given
up, and the captives set free. Granted the
primary fact of brigandage, and it is
impossible to overlook the reasonableness
of such a stipulation. Any civilised person who can
imagine himself a brigand will at once conclude that,
in the position of the robber chief, he would have hold
out with all the obstinacy and contempt of the
regular authorities which characterised that indi-
vidual. The Ministry at Athens pleaded that the Con-
stitution would not allow them to grant an amnesty.
The brigand chief, hearing that the nation made the
Constitution, naively suggested that the nation should
be gathered together to alter it for the especial benefit
of himself and his troop. This neat proposition. was
of course inadmissible. At length the Greek Ministry
conceived a fine idea. The King could not grant an
amnesty; but it was quite within his constitutional
power to give a pardon after a trial, and if the
brigands would come to Athens, be tried and con-
demned, they should receive their pardon and their
money, and go wherever they chose.

It is almost incredible that such a miserable sub-
terfuge, wasting time, and bringing contempt on
all concerned, should have been made at such a
crisis by a set of men in a responsible position.
And yet it was not only made, but deliberately
insisted upon. The brigand chief, however,
would not risk himself in Athens. He
despised the Administration, and therefore he
would not trust it. He was willing to undergo the
degrading farce of a mock trial and condemnation at
the village where he was encamped. Come to Athens
be wouldnot. The Greek Ministers insisted for their
" honour's " sake that he should. And this point, it
would seem, decided the fate of the Englishmen and
the Italian secretary. The letters terminate whilst
Tots low comedy is being played. w e know, now
ever, that the massacre followed immediately. It
may be easy enough for foreign critics to decide that
the Greek Government is not to blame for what
happened; but Englishmen will mostly conclude that

if the honour of the Greek Government were so far
gone that it could concede a mock trial, it mattered

little where the trial took place. In fact, the whole
negotiation about this .process of justice is a most
miserable and ruinous farce. The plain duty of the
administration in such a position was to acknow-

ledge the supariority which the brigands had gained)
make a tabula rasa of the past, and grant a pardon.
Such au honest course could not hare been so de-
grading as the trial expedient.

ict;E (IT ,

II LIB .11AJESTY.

OSBORNE, May 1.

The Queen drove out yesterday afternoon.
Her Majesty and the Royal Family and the Ladies
and Gentlemen in Waiting attended Divine service
at Whippingham Church this morning.

Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess
attended Divine service yesterday at the Chapel
Royal St. James's.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

FRANCE.

PARIS, May 1.

The France of this evening states that the amnesty
which was expected after the Plebiscite will not now
be granted.

The Univers announces that the reply of the
Vatican to Count Daru's memorandum has arrived in
Paris. It simply refuses to communicate the memo-
randum to the Council. Neither will Cardinal An-
tonelli enter into any discussion on the questions
raised by Count Daru.

CREUZOT, May 1 (Evening).

M. Assy, the fomenter of the repeated strikes,
and another suspected person, were arrested to-day.
While the prisoners were being conducted to the
railway station numerous masses of people threw
stones and other projectiles at the authorities, whereby
several of the police were wounded.
The prescribed warning having been given a body
of cavalry dispersed the crowd.

Nine of the rioters were arrested, amongst whom

two natives of Switzerland, one of whom had se-
riously wounded a lancer, whilst Assy attempted to
incite the crowd.

Work continues as in the various establish.
meats at Creuzot.

tiOURSE, April 30.—Three o'clock—The marl e

~used as follows :
If per Cent.
{ per Cents 74 25 Ital'an vives 57 .50
End of month_ 74 67} Austrian Fives
`Jfeclit Mobilier ~. 237 50 Ottoman Loan
Transatlantic 197 50 Do. Debt 4B 75
Credit Foncier ...1303 Spanish Threes -
Paris Gas 1675 -. Home Debt —
Suez Canal 295 Deferred —
RAIL WAY S

Cash
Orleans
Western
Northern
Strasburg
rayons and Mediterranean
Southern_ 605
Sardinian
Austrian .
Lombard.
North of Spain
Saragossa
Roman.

792 k
4021
681
85
43i

ROME.

ROME, April 30.

A general congregation of the Council, held yes-
terday, commenced the discussion on the subject,
"De parvo Catechismo," which terminated to-day.
The vote will be taken on 'Wednesday next. The
first portion of the papers referring to the " Schema
de Romano Pontifice" were distributed yesterday.
The second portion of these documents,—namely,
those treating of Infallibility, will be issued to-day.