The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-10 00:00:00

PRESENTATION OF THE PUR-
NELL TESTIMONIAL.
(From the Gloucester Journal.)
Our readers will recollect that the management of
the Private Lunatic Asylums of this county has
formed a prominent subject of discussion at the
County Quarter Sessions, during the last two years.
The County Chairman, P. B. Purnell, Esq , in the
discharge of his duty of visitor to the private
asylums in the neighbourhood of Bristol, having
detected some abuses, commenced a searching in-
vestigation, which resulted in the discovery of the
most appalling cases of oppression and cruelty.
In the face of the most unscrupulous, because inter-
ested opposition, he persevered, and the result was the
collection of a mass of evidence, which will probably
have an important influence in procuring an alteration
in the law of lunacy. The admiration not only of the
county, but of the country at large, was excited by the
devotion with which the county chairman sacrificed his
time and repose in the cause of suffering humanity, and
the signally beneficial results of his exertions, not
only in tracking out injustice, but in sifting the state-
ments set up in its justification. The Court of
Quarter Sessions, on the conclusion of a series of
special investigations, marked their sense of his con-
duct by an unanimous vote of thanks ; but the public
feeling was too strong to be satisfied without
creating some more marked memorial of their views.
A public subscription was, therefore, commenced,
and on Tuesday last, the chairman was presented,
in the name of the subscribers, with a testimonial,
which is at once an enduring mark of public respect,
and a beautiful and unique specimen of art. The
testimonial consists of a drawing-room table, sur-
mounted by a silver vase. The material of the table
is ebony, beautifully inlaid with silver, with a rase-
wood border. In the centre is a cavity, intended to
contain a roll of vellum, bearing an appropriate
inscription, and the names of the subscribers. The
cavity is covered by the vase, whieh is intended
to bear flowers. The design is pure Etruscan, the
vase being modelled after those in possession of Sir
Henry Englefield. The appearance of the testimo-
nial is chaste and classical; and competent judges
have pronounced it an honourable specimen of British
art. We hear, indeed, that the maker, Mr. Ilan-
cock, of Burton-street, London, proposes, with the
permission of the owner, to exhibit it at the Industrial
Exhibition.
The ceremony of presentation took place at-the
King's Head Hotel, where the testimonial had been
previously placed for public inspection. A large
number of magistrates, amongst whom was the Earl
of Ellenborough, assembled; and there was also an
array of ladies. The following is a report of the,
addresses :

Earl FITZHARDINGE said—My Lord, Ladies, and
Gentlemen, though the task which is at present as-
signed to me is one of the most agreeable kicd, and
one in most complete harmony with my own senti-
ments, yet I find that it is beset , with
more difficulty than I anticipated—so much so, that
I fear that I shall not only not acquit myself to your
satisfaction, but that I shall fail in giving satis-
faction to myself. It is impossible, on this subject,
to be wholly slient, and yet I know well that the
mind of a highly educated gentleman shrinks from
the expression of great praise when it is addressed
personally to himself, however deserved such en-
comiums may be. I shall not, therefore, say all I
wished to say, or all I think, of the conduct of our
county chairman. The vase and the table, the gift of
the public of the county, though they are not gifted
with speech, are infinently more eloquent tributes to
the philanthropy of the chairman than aikything
that can fall from my lips. For myself, I must be
permitted to say, individually, that I derive the
greatest gratification in being chosen to discharge the
task of presenting this mark of esteem to so old and
valued a friend as the county chairman. I feel much ho-
noured by being selected by the public to become the
medium of expressing the sentiments which the public are
known to hold for one for whom I entertain so high an
esteem and sincere a friendship. I, therefore, request
you, Mr. Chairman, to accept from the county arid the'
public this testimonial, as a mark of our high sense of
gratitude for the perseverance and for the untiring
patience which you have exhibited in endeavouring to
alleviate the sufferings of our fellow-creatures—
sufferings the most appalling of any of all
" the ills that flesh is heir to." I can
only say for myself, and I am sure that it is the
feeling of every one present, that all attempts to
inquire into, or put a stop to, abuses which have had
the sanction of time, however inconsiderable, always
meet opposition, which imposes on persons who attack
them a most difficult task. Your path, Mr. Chair-
man, was beset with difficulty ; you had great obsta-
cles to encounter; but you were 'not diverted by
difficulties, and you overcame all obstacles in your
way. I, therefore, once more request you to accept
this as a mark how deeply we feel such services,
grateful to God and to man ; and I can, with truth,
add, that " the blessing of him who is ready to perish
shall come upon thee."—(Cheers.)
P. B. PURNELL, Esq., then rose and said—My
Lord Lieutenant, my Lord, and Ladies and Gentle-
men, I have listened to his Lordship's address with
feelings of humility and gratification ; of humility,
as knowing that I can lay claim only to an anxious
endeavour to perform efficiently that task which I had
undertaken voluntarily; and of the highest gratification
at the very flattering manner in which my exertions
have been appreciated. The necessity for such exer-
tions having become apparent, the investigations were
commenced, with the desire to elicit truth—to relieve
unmerited misery—and by exposure, to suppress
secret and shameful abuses. Pursued without
fear or favour, they created, externally, active,
violent, and influential opponents ; and inter-
nally, acute feelings of responsibility and anxiety,
both alike difficult to contend with, whilst
sights irresistibly impressed on the memory, were
continually reproduced to the mind, depressing it with
their life-like' reminiscences. That they have termi-
nated in results favourable to others far beyond
my most sanguine expectations, and to myself,
far beyond any supposed desert, is to be
attributed to the decisions in their favour by
the highest court in the realm, and the generous
support of the public, whose sympathies have
been thus evinced in the cause of suffering humanity.
And, as assuredly none deserve our tenderest com-
miseration more than those who, under the inscru-
table dispensations of Providence, or by the machina-
tions of man, are immured, insane or sane, in a
private lunatic asylum; as none more require that
legal protection and support which the existing
law appears inadequate to afford, so can legislative
relief be alone anticipated from the general ex-
pression of that commiseration by the public at large.
When the same sympathy which has been so pro-
fusely lavished on transgressors of the laws, convert-
ing the prison of the felon into a home teeming
with comforts unattainable by the honest labourer;
when such sympathy shall be equally exerted in favour
of this discarded—this desolate—and this helpless
class of our fellow-creatures, we may then expect,
from the awakened energy of Government, and the
wisdom of Parliament, amendment of the law on lu-
nacy. May a consummation so desirable be speedily
realised; and may even a meeting like the present
attract some share of general attention, however
small, to these genuine objects for the exercise of
public philanthropy. May such causeless imprison-
ments as I have met with, such distressing sights as I
have witnessed, such horrible cruelties as have been
recounted by me, such abuses as abundantly exist,
but are rarely revealed, in Private Lunatic Asylums,—
may all such be prevented and suppressed by the
effective although tardy intervention of the Legis-
lature. Forced by your kindness to revert to self, I
tender to you my most heartfelt acknowledgments
for the splendid testimonial of your approbation of
my conduct, now offered by you for my acceptance.
I most gratefully receive as such your beautiful and
valuable gift, and respectfully assure you that I shall
ever feel what I deem to be an honest pride in its
possession ; and shall leave it, with the record of its
contributors,. as a priceless heirloom to my posterity.

THE APPROACHING SESSION.—MR. ROEBUCK AT
Won.K.—The lion. Member for Sheffield sent the following
reply to an invitation to attend a literary snide on Tues-
day :—" Milton, Lymington, Jan. 5, 1851.—llear Sir,--I
find that my labours so increase and grow upon me, that I
shall not be able to be at Sheffield on Tuesday. You will,
I hope, soon see why it is that I am thus compelled to be
absent, and my real excuse will appear in a somewhat for-
midable shape. To this work I am now bound to attend
and every minute of every day is dedicated to it, as I wish
to be free from all trouble when Parliament meets. Having,
then, much labour before me, pray make my excuses in the
most persuasive phrase you can, and accept my best wishes
of the season, for yourself and the excellent institution
which on this occasion I would ask you to represent.—l am,
dear sir, yours truly, J. A. ROEBUCR.—Mr. Hutchings."