The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-06 00:00:00

THE WEATHER.—SuN OFFICE, OCTOBER 5.
THRBAIONIETER, IN TFIB ►SHADE.
61—highest since noon yesterday.
40—lowest this morning and during tha night.
55—this day, at noon.

BA.ROXIITER, 29.69.
WLND W.—Morning, cloudy ; Afternoon, fair.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 6.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SMARR.
55—highest since noon yesterday.
45—lowest this morning and during the night.
55—this day, at noon.
BAROMETER, 29.82.
WIND W.—Morning, heavy showers; Afternoon, fine.

TO CORRESPONDENTS
No communication can be attended to unless authen-
ticated by the name and address of the writer.
Rejected communications cannot be returned.

el lel Ina aim
LONDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1851.

--...--
We said on a former occasion that the antecedents
of the Earl of SHAFTESBURY were not such as to in-
duce us to place the slightest trust in any measure
for the amendment of the laws relating to lunacy in
the framing of which himself or his colleagues of the
Lunacy Board shall have any share. We go further
and declare our conviction that no ready cut and
dried measure which can be presented to Parliament
can by any possibility be found efficient for that pur-
pose. We yield to no one in our admiration of the
administrative powers, the energy, firmness, and
honesty of purpose, and the untiring industry of Sir
GEORGE GREY ; but we are not prepared to accept even
from his hands a measure for the amendment of the
laws of lunacy, inasmuch as be has not and cannot
have at his command all the materials necessary for
the enactment of a law which shall correct even the
most flagrant of the present existing abuses. The
only information on which the Home Secretary can
act must be necessarily derived from the Commis-
sioners in Lunacy themselves, that is to say, he, the
judge, will have to plead from the brief for the
defence; for any attempt at amending those laws must
necessarily proceed upon the supposition that the
existing law has not worked well, and must therefore
be considered at least by implication as an act of ac •
cusation against those who have been concerned in
the administration of that law. This question is now
in a very different position from that in which it was
when legislation last took place on this subject, in
1845. In 1845 we were absolutely ignorant of the
statistics of lunatic asylums ; there was an absolute
certainty indeed that in many privete lunatic asylums
the most atrocious cruelties were practised on the un-
fortunate inmates, but it was generally considered that
the, perpetration of these cruelties was confined, or nearly
confined, to pauper asylums or to those of which the
inmates were removed but one degree from paupers,
whilst in what were then considered lunatic asylums
of a higher order it was taken for granted that the
patients were treated with humanity and kindness,
and that no person could be incarcerated in such
asylums unless there was indisputable evidence of
his insanity. The labours of the Alleged Lunatics
Friend Society, aided by the exertions in many in-
stances of the local magistracy, have, notwithstand-
ing the endeavours of the Commissioners of Lunacy
to throw obstacles in the way of those who have
devoted their time, and talents, and energies to the
exposure of the abuses existing in the management
of private lunatic asylums, proved that the assump-
tion upon which the legislation of 1845 was based
was altogether a false assumption:; that so far from
the pauper asylums being the worst conducted of any,
the pauper county lunatic asylums are almost the only
decently conducted asylums, and that in all, even in
the bsst conducted of the private lunatic asylums,
cruelties, gratuitous and unnecessary cruelties,
are practised at which humanity shudders; that
persons perfectly sane are frequently confined,
and subjected to a mode of treatment sufficient
to drive any but a person of very strong mind
mad ; and that, how cogent so ever may be the
proofs of sanity offered by any of these unfortunate
persons to the Commissioners, they, as an invariable
rule, refuse to order the release of any one until he or
she shall have been subjected to mad-house treat-
ment for six months—a discipline which, we
will engage to say, would be quite sufficient to
deprive one and all of the Commissioners of their
reasoning powers. In a former article we alluded to
the entry made in the visitors' book of the Northwoods
Lunatic Asylum by the visiting magistrates of Glou-
cestershire. The Northwoods Asylum has always
had the reputation of being one of the very best
conducted asylums in the kingdom, and we believe
that it has deserved its reputation ; we believe that
there are few private lunatic ssylums in the United
Kingdom so: well conducted as is the lunatic asylum
of Dr. HENRY HAWBS Fox, at Northwoods ; and yet,
we find that in this asylum the law has not only been
habitually violated, but that persons have been in-
structed by the proprietor in the art and mystery of
(evading the law; as, for example, when Dr. H. H. Fox
states in a letter to a person making an order, " If there
be any inconvenience in getting a second certificate, it
can be dispensed with until after admission," and
to another, " the second certificate can be procured at
my house, if more convenient;" and that, to use the
words of the Gloucestershire magistrates, there has
prevailed in the asylum "a system in which all the
barriers created by the law against illegal and im-
proper orders and certificates, and against the illegal
Yeception and detention of patients, have been broken
through and utterly disregarded." If such be the
casewith regard to one of the best conducted private
lunatic asylums in the kingdom ; if the proprietor
of the asylum has rendered himself amenable to above
280 prosecutions for misdemeanours, what must be
the case with the great majority of the proprietors
of the: private lunatic asylums, whose asylums are
not so well conducted as that of Dr. H. H. Fox ?
Nothing but an inquiry before a Parliamentary Com-
mittee can elicit the evidence upon which alone it will
be safe to:legislate upon this subject, and the Alleged
Lunatics' Friend Society are in possession of evidence
which the Commissioners of Lunacy have endeavoured
on every occasion to ignore, but which the society
are prepared and anxious to produce before such a
Committee, which will prove that the existing law of
lunacy: is habitually abused by families for the
purpose of incarcerating obnoxious relatives, after the
same fashion that the system of lettres de, cachet
was abused in France, before the revolution of 1798,
with this distinction, however, that whereas in France
the Royal sign manual was necessary to authorise
twopr. aup.oHtli.ecta,erire:
the incarceration, in England the signatures of any
the
such
will
. forger,
aat
utrtehse (or, according to the instructions of
ftobrat instance)o of
one
areon only
sufficient,l F asiehTdcutehaat,
rmayate ofb be
any
en purchased
shillingsrat e
each,
cnhy, dayis matteran d at
of public notoriety. In their
reports the Alleged Lunatics' Friend
dntsly published
has been
relate
many cases in which the existing law
abused; several of these cases have already
beenthus
proved in courts of justice. In one of thyemth proprietor and the medical attendantof e
a lunatic
asylum were indicted, pleaded guilty, fined 50/ ,
and yet the Commissioners of Lunacy renewed their.
licence. In another a man had been confined for
years upon a forged order ; in another, two unfortu-
nate men, each with a property of 3501. a year, left
to them by their father for their support, and whose
Sister-in-law had married one of the proprietors of
the establishment, had been kept in a miserable state
of confinement, deprived of proper comforts and
healthy exercise, as the comparatively small sum of
1101. each had only been allowed for their mainte-
nance, whilst the family reserved the remainder
of their income for their own benefit,
actually
and had ally divided a great part of it
amongstT themselves, as if the lunatics were dead.
Chancellor
was brought under the attention of Lord,
"nor COTTE/iHAM. by the Alleged Lunatics'
Friend Society, and • •
i 1 his Lordship appointed proper
i 1 committees to protect th • els. persons and property, who
[ I removed them from the
;which their
health, phalli
eeene of their tortures, since
.cal and mental, has greatly
improved. These cases all took i
re-
gularly inspected by the Com • price in asylums
Commissioners, who in every

wi•
;;44 liqq,
A'N
, 44
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