The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-06 00:00:00

BARNET CATTLE FAIR.

On Monday the great annual fair at Barnet was
opened for public business, and its world-wide
fame for the extensive supply of every large de-
scription of stock was fully sustained. There was
a large attendance of eminent stock dealers and
agriculturists, cattle dealers and breeders, who
visit this as the most likely mart to sell stock, and
graziers and feeders make their selections at this
autumn fair. The condition of the stock generally
was of fair average, and many droves of beasts were
full of flesh. The number of cattle brought to-
gether was less than in previous years. There was
a good demand, and sales were effected early. The
counties of Hereford and Devon contributed some
of their best grazing beasts. Yorkshire was
fairly represented, with excellent and well-bred
milch cows. Ireland sent some large herds of
cattle to the fair, and Scotland likewise sent some
choice and well-bred cattle. Prices were as an-
nexed :—Herefords, well-bred bullocks for stall
feeding, £l6 to £lB ; good grazing steers, £ll to
£l4; stock heifers, £lO to £ll. Devons, prime
bullocks, £l5 to £lB ; useful steers, £l2 to £l5 ;
coarse bred ditto, £9 to £ll. Durham steers made
£l5 to £l7 ; and mulch cows, £l3 to £l5. Lincolns
and half-breds varied in price from £ll to £l6,
and well-grazed steers made £2O. Sussex beasts,
well-conditioned steers for stall feeding, £l4 to £l5;
bullocks, aged, broke to the ox yoke, sold at from
£lB to £2O each. Irish cattle, well-grown steers,
£ll to £l3 ; choice selections, £l5 ; heifers, £8 to
£lO ; yearlings, £4 to £5. Scotch cattle—this de-
scription of stock sold readily—best qualities of
polled Scots and in high condition made from £2O
to £22 a head; ditto for feeding up, £l5 to £l7,
and small steers, £l3 to £l4; runts, these High-
land beasts, which comprise a bullock in miniature,
were in active request ; those fresh from grazing
made from £5 to £9 each; well-conditioned ditto,
£l2; mulch cows, this class of stock was in high
competition by the eagerness of milkmen in the
metropolis to secure them ; choice bred shorthorn
cows in full milk and calf by their side made from
£l7 to £2O ; large-framed Yorkshire cows in full
profit, £2O to £23, and selections of handsome
beasts were made at £25, ditto cows to calve down
early early £l5 to £l7 ; Ayrshire cows, £l2 to £l4 ;
and half-bred ditto, £lO to £l2. The fair remains
open to-day (Tuesday) and to-morrow for horses
and cattle.

SPORTING _INTELLIGENCE.

TATTERSALLS'—YEsTEnDAY.

LEAMINGTON STAKES.
3to 1 agst Independence (taken)
7to 2 agst Gaspard
6to 1 agst Petra (taken)
Bto 1 agst Theodora (taken)

ST. LEGER.
Evei\ on Promised Land
6to 1 agst Summerside (taken)
Bto 1 agst Marionette (taken)
10 to 1 agst Trumpeter (offered)
20 to 1 agst Comforter (taken)
25 to 1 agst Napoleon (taken)
2.5 to 1 agst Gamester (offered)
33 to 1 agst Aston (taken and offered)
33 to 1 agst Gladiolus (taken)
12 to 1 agst Scott's lot.

RACING FIXTURES FOR 1859.

SEPTEMBER.

Cardiff
Rochester and Chatham
Doncaster 13
Dover
Chesterfield
Leicester

Monmouth 22
Manchester Autumn 23
Newmarket F.O 27
Brecon 27
Walsall 28

OCTi
Richmond 4
Royal Caledonian Hunt
and Perth
Bedford 8

Novm:
Worcester Autumn 2
Liverpool Autumn

Newmarket S.O. lO
Ipswich 19
Kelso 19
Newmarket H 24

!MEER.
I Shrewsbury Autumn....ls

IRISH RACING FIXTURES FOR 1859.

SEPTEMBER.
Curragh
Tullow
Tramore ..15

DRINKING FOUNTAlN.—Yesterday a very hand-
some free drinking fountain was opened for public use in
the Horseferry-road, Westminster, at the point of junction
of Struttan-ground, Great Peter-street, and Greycoat-place.
It is let into the wall of the Greycoat Hospital. The foun-
tain is formed of white marble enclosed in an oval bronze
scroll formed of foliage and figures. In the centre a shell
is elegantly carved in white marble, from which the water
flows in a continuous jet.
GALLANT CONDUCT AT RHYL.—Six young ladies
a few evenings ago, left their lodgings at this fashionable
Welsh watering place, for the purpose of enjoying a bathe,
but on arriving at the water only one would venture in, the
rest consenting to sit on the beach. After having been in
the water for some time she was suddenly seized with the
cramp, and all her companions were too timid to render as-
sistance. Just at this time a young woman named Turner,
maid to Mrs. Bennion, of Wrexham, happened to be pass-
ing, and on seeing the lady in the water is a dying state,
at once rushed to her assistance, and in a shore* time suc-
ceeded in bringing her safely to land. This was done at
the risk of Miss Turner's own life, for she had been strictly
forbidden to bathe by her medicafadviser, having just re-
covered from a severe illness.

•

REPORT OF THE LUNACY COMMIS-

SIONE.RS.

A copy of the 13th report of the Commissioners
in Lunacy to the Lord Chancellor, presented pur-
suant to Act of Parliament, was published a few

days ago in the shape of a small packet blue-book.
The Commissioners, under the presidency of the
Earl of Shaftesbury, their chairman, report, at
length, the steps taken during the past (official)
year to increase and improve the public accommo-
dation for pauper lunatics in the counties and
boroughs of England and Wales, and bring under
the notice of the Lord Chancellor the existing con-

dition of the several asylums when last visited by
the Board. The recent entries in their books have

been, for the most part, of a favourable character,
although certain recommendations had to be made

occasionally for the improvement of the treatment,
comfort, and general condition of the unfortunate
insane. In the aggregate these recommendations
constitute essential parts of the treatment of the
disease. Suggestions for the improvement of diet
and the allowance of other comforts to the patients
are also obviously important, as part of a well-
established system of treating their peculiar and
very distressing malady. There is a great want of
accommodation in public (pauper) lunatic asylums,
and this leads to the abuse of farming out-patients
to strangers, keeping them in workhouses, or to
the supersession of the (legal) public asylums by
" licensed houses" for paupers_ The public asylums,
stigmatised for various defects of internal arrange-
ment, irregularity, and inattention to suggestions,
include the Cornwall Asylum, Denbigh, the Kent
County Asylum, and asylums in Lancashire (want
of accommodation), at Prestwich, Han well, Colney-
hatch, in Norfolk, Salop, Stafford, Suffolk, Surrey,
Sussex, Wilts, West Riding of York, at Haverford-

west (a very bad case indeed), and at Hull. In most
of the above cases the defects are comparatively
trifling, or the complaint is that the recommenda-
tions of the Board have not been attended to.

But the state of Haverfordwest (South Wales)
Asylum, formerly a dungeon for criminals is a
scandal to the country, and the Lord Chancellor
will doubtless directly interfere. The " defects
.

are glaring," and are set forth, as in former reports,
in detail. One specimen of the place is given in the
fact that the asylum does not contain a single
watercloset—the consequences are such as decency
forbids us to describe. The (private) licensed
houses in the metropolitan districs exhibit an im-
provement in their condition and management. The.
suggestions of the Board have generally been
adopted, and increased attention has been paid to
the physical comforts of the patients. A resident
medical officer—a great desideratum—has been
appointed at Blacklands and at Brooke-house. In
two or three cases, however, the Commissioners
have felt bound to take stringent measures to enforce
the adoption of the necessary alterations and im-
provements ; and the licenses were curtailed, with
a broad hint that their renewal might become a
question for serious deliberation. The names of these
dens are not given in the report. In one case the
proprietor of the madhouse was apparently so
encumbered with debts as not to have sufficient
means for the due maintenance of his establish-

ment and the securing of adequate comfort to his
patients. To this person only a short provisional
license was granted.. At Normand and Northum-
berland important structural alterations have been
insisted on and made. The Commissioners propose

to reduce the number of licensed houses as Much as

possible, so as to restrict them henceforth to the
reception of patients belonging to parishes in the
immediate vicinity of the metropolis; their object
is to exclude paupers from them altogether. Four
licensed houses in the provinces have been closed,
and one new license has been granted by the jus-
tices at Bury St. Edmund's. The notorious Acomb
House, near York, is again referred to. The man
Metcalfe who kept this (now closed) house was pro.
secuted by the Board, and, although he fled to the
Continent, a Bench warrant is out against him and
still remains in force. Plympton-house still hears
a black mark, and should be looked to. The house
at High Beech has been closed by the justices them-
selves, and the Board approve their decision. Port-
land-house, Whitchurch, Herefordshire; is a very
exceptional case, and but for a belief that there was
no intentional hardship or neglect on the part of
the proprietor, his license would have been revoked.
The report says :
" It is evident from the details that no benefit is likely to
result from the often-repeated suggestions for improvement
which have been made by us, and it is therefore with a
hope that some other means may be devised to obtain the
necessary improvements that we bring the matter thus
prominently before your lordship."

The greater caution exercised in granting licenses
has led to a diminution in the number of private
asylums, in the course of 10 years, from 146 to 114,
The payments for patients do not always in thehe
houses secure a proper return, and many abuses in
this respect appear to exist. The sale of licensed
houses, when the patients are " turned over" to a
new proprietor like so many head of cattle, is to
be generally discountenanced as a gross abuse..
The subject of attendance, and especially nightly
attendance, is discussed at some length by the
board, and its importance much insisted on. The
practice of " secluding" patients, or locking them
up alone, is under strict surveillance mad in several
cases a more generous diet, including the use of
beer, has been ordered and insisted on in spite of
frivolous excuses—" an ample diet being generally
very desirable, and often absolutely necessary to
the re§toration of insane patients." The Eatl's•wood
Idiots Institution is reported as improved, there
having been much room for improvement. It is
regretted that the military authorities persist in
neglecting to erect an asylum for insane soldiers.
Sailors are provided for, but soldiers are farmed
out and made a source of profit to private pro-
prietqrs. The Commissioners urge the necessity of
early legislation to remdve the hardship entailed on
the insane and their families by the present dila-
tory and expensive provisions of the law for the
administration of the property and income of insane
persons of very limited means. The Lunacy Act of
1853 is reported to be a failure in this respect. The
neglect of lunatics in the island of Jersey is also
adverted to as a crying evil, but the case has been
already taken up by " the States." The treatment
of single patients is very sad. One gentleman,
under the care of a market gardener (an ex-attend-
ant at a hospital), was ultimately removed to an
asylum. Other special reports are truly distress-
.

ing.
In connexion with the subject of single patients
it is important, observe the Commissioners, to con-
sider how completely many are at the mercy of
attendants of a low grade, who are almost their only
companions. During the past year, upon the
occasion of a visit by a member of the Board to an
insane gentleman, a single patient, in St. John's-
wood, his attention was drawn to the general.
character and proceedings of attendants in that
neighbourhood, and to an association entiitled
" The Lisson Grove Association of Attendants on
Persons Bodily or Mentally Afflicted." According
to the statement of the visiting Commissioner's in-
formant, many of the members of the association
are very disreputable characters, and, having ob-
tained employment through the medium of the
association, grossly neglect their patients. Two es-
pecially were mentioned as notorious for drunken-
ness and profligacy •, and a third, as having
been engaged from the association by a lady to
attend upon her insane son, and whom she had
dismissed for gross neglect and other misconduct.
It appeared upon inquiry that the practice of many
attendants is to leave their patients from 10 o'clock
at night till two or three in the mormig, and to go
out constantly during these hours to drink with
their companions. It is painful .to be informed
that the insane are frequently neglected—for long
periods unvisited—by their own relatives, and that
the patients feel it acutely. The Board think that
the law should afford every facility for Such visits,
because, as a general rule, they are conducive to
the patient's good. The Commissioners conclude
by regretting that there appears to be little pros-
pect of obtaining possession of the land purchased
near Dartford for the erection of an asylum for the
pauper lunatics of the city of London before next
Christmas or the spring of 1860. A State
" Criminal" Asylum is to be builfon Bagshot-heath.
6,985 lunatics (2,413 males, and 2,572 females) were
admitted into county and borough asylums in 1858,
while 2,614 were discharged (1,965 recovered). On
New Year's-day last there remained on hand 15,842
lunatics, of whom 1,673 were deemed curable ; 11
were found lunatic by inquisition, 326 were crimi-
nals, and 1,354 were chargeable to counties and
boroughs. 1,858 lunatics remained in hospitals on
the Ist of January, 1859.; 904 were admitted, and
607 discharged (341 recovered) last year. In the
metropolitan licensed houses there were 2,551
lunatics on hand last New Year's-day (331
deemed curable, 132 found lunatic, and 36
criminals). 119 only were chargeable to the
public.. 1,287 were private, and 1,264 pauper
lunatics. In the provincial houses 2,523 lunatics
remained on the Ist of January last, of whom 179
were chargeable (413 only deemed curable.) Thus,
there were altogether 22,774 lunatics in durance on
the Ist of January, 1859 ( 137 in the naval hos-
pitals), and of these 2,773 were deemed curable.
300 were lunatics by inquisition, 682 were crimi-
nals, and 1,652 chargeable to counties or boroughs.
4,889 of the 22,911 were private, and 18,022 pauper
patients. We have at length exhausted the con-
tents of this painful blue-book.

The Continental letters mention that the Russian
Government have made an arrangement with Messrs.
Rothschild to take the whole of the balance of the recent
loan which was not subscribed abroad, and which had
therefore been taken at St. Petersburg on Government ac-
count. Nothing, however, has transpired in London either
to confirm or contradict the statement.