The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-25 00:00:00

FRIDA Y. L N 1 Nr•,,' or •
A -

THEATRE ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
Mr. B. Webster, :lea Lessee and Manager, Old ;iromptari.
THIS EVENING,
Will he presented an entirely new and original Comedy, entitled
LEAP YEAR ; or, The Ladies' Privilege. Sir Solomon Soins, Mr.
Keeley ; Captain Mouser, Mr. ielby ; Mr. Dimple, Mr. Buckstone ;
William Walker. Mr. Charles Kean ; Mrs. Flora Flower..!ew, Mrs.
Charles Kean; Miss Sally O'Leary, Mrs. Fitzwllliam ; Mrs: Crisp,
Mrs. Keeley.
After which TIIE NINTH STATUE or, The Jewels and
The Gem.. Principal characters by Mr. Munyard, Miss P. Horton,
Mrs. L. S. Buckingham, and Miss K. Fitzwilliam.
To conclude with the Farce of SEPARATE MAINTENANCE.
Mr. Ponnipother, Mr. Keeley ; Mrs. Pennipother, Mrs. Keeley Jane
Prigs'', Miss P. Horton.
The Box-office is under the direction of Mr. I. T. Archer.

THEATRIA lIOYtII., ADELPIII.
Under the dir.acti,a of Mednmc. - • _
THIS EVENING
Will be performed a new domestic Drama, called THE WILLOW
COPSE. Principal characters by Messrs. Hughes, Wright, P. Bed-
, O. Smith, Worrell; Madame Celeste, and Miss Woe!gar.
After which FRANKENSTELsi • or, The Model Man. franken-
stein, Mr. Wright ; the What is It? Mr. P. Bedford; Zamiel, Mr. 0.
Smith ; Otte) of Rosenberg, Miss Woolgar ; Tiddlewincz, Miss E.
Chaplin ; Agatha, Miss Coveny ; Undine, Miss E. Harding.
To 13,a followed by a new slippery sketc healcled MRS.BUNBUBY'S
SPOONS. Mr. Highbury Barnes, Mr. Bedford ; Bob Twinks,
Mr. Wright ; Job Smith, Mr. 0. Smith: Mrs. llttubtn•y, Mrs. F.
Matthews; Mrs. Highbury Barnes, Miss Brooks.
-•••

PRINCESS'S THEATRE.
Mr. J. M. Maddox, Sole Lesaeo and Managor.
THIS EVENING,
Will be performed a new Opera, entitled CHARLES THE SE

COND. -
To conclude with KING JAMIE ; or, Harlequin and Magic Fiddle
Harlequin, Mr. Bologna; Pantaloon, Mr. Paulo; Clown, Mr. Flex-
more; Columbine, MIN Fawcett.

ASTLE ILO AL AMPIIITTIF.ATRE.
Proprietor, Mr. W. Betty,
THIS EVEICINk,
::,The performance will commence at a Quarter to Seven, with a
new Grand Spectacle of THE KNIGHT or THE EAGLE CREST ;
or, The Tourney of Love, in which al.r. N. T. Hicks will appear.
To be followed by a brilliant display of Batty's peerless scenes of
:he Circle, supported by the accomplished artistes of the establish-

went.
To conclude with a grand Equestrian Comic Pantomime, .by NCl-
son Lee, called HARLEQUIN 'YANKEE DOODLE, Rho came to
Town upon his little Posy.
flux-office upea from Eleven tin fro Dr.
•

WATER AT LONDON 8R1134.1E. • -
Tnt; DAY orn!ng, 15 min. after 11 1 F.l7:An.!ng, 49 mln. after 11
To-Nfoßßow —Morning, 0 min. after 0 1 Kvezlll,4, 19 mtn. mt.! 12

THE FYEsATHFIt,--Saar OFFICE, JAN. 25.
THERMOMETER, Lowoit, 30. Ilighest. 37: Noon. 46.
BAROMETER, 30; mercury going down fast.
?AND W.S.W.—mild airs and fine sunshine, the first

of the former, and to improve the relationship with
our numerous dependencies, by permitting a greater
degree of self-government, and extending the princi-
ple of representation.
- Although we do not subscribe to the fallacies of the
Peace Congress, we are ready to admit that benefit
will be derived from full and ample di,cussion ; and
so long as Mr. COBDEN conducts that discussion in
the unobjectionable tone adopted at Sheffield, we shall
gladly listen to every argument he may please to
advance.

At the January Quarter Ssssions for the county
of Gloucester, the magistrates, on the motion of
Earl FITZUARDINGE, the 14:m3-Lieutenant of the
county, which motion was seconded by the Duke of
BEAUFoRT, voted by acclamation, " That the
cordial thanks of the Court be presented to Mr.
PURNELL, the County Chairman, for his conduct on
' the subject of the private Lunatic Asylums." Never
was vote of thanks more richly merited, and the
magistrates of the county of Gloucester are deserving
of all honour for the manner in which they have
supported their excellent chairman in the performance
of the very onerous duties which have devolved on
him, and by the admirable execution of which he has
conferred a lasting benefit on his country. The evils
and abuses existing in many of the private lunatic
asylums, are of such a nature that, as was justly ob-
served by Earl VITZIL&RDINGE—
"It required a great - deal of courage and persever-
ance in any man who should attempt to put down
these evils and seek amendment, and to endure all the
obloquy which would be cast on him if he endeavoured
to interfere with the persons interested in the continu-
-ance of those evils."
Most- fortunate it is for the cause of suffering
humanity that such a man was found in Mr. PUR-
NELL. " The perseverance," we again quote the
words of Earl FrsZUAEDINGE :
"The perseverance, the unwearied labour, and the
t -undaunted moral courage which he has shown in his
conduct in the affair of the private lunatic asylums, have
. reflected the highest credit on him both in his public and
private character."
The Duke of BEAUFORT, in seconding the motion,
bore his personal testimony to the exertions of Mr.
PuariEnn. In the course of his speech, his Grace

observed—
"I have taken considerable interest in all that relates
to the management of the lunatic asylums, and in con-
sequence, I lave had frequent communications with our
excellent chairman, and I have had brought to my notice
some of the benefits which he has conferred upon man-
kind generally by detecting the abuses existing in lu-
natic asylums. The Lord Chancellor has had an
opportunity which, probably, would not have been af-
forded him of giving judgment in favour of the release
of an unf,rtunate pstieet, which, I believe, but for the
exertions of our worthy chairman, would never have
come bt fore his Lordship's notice. That is one of many
instances in which the chairman has succeeded in re-
tire-nine from wretchedness and misery several unfortu-
ua'e patients."
The magistrates of Gloucestershire have done their
duty, but surely the manner in which Mr. PURNELL
has devoted himself to a task which he has well de-
scribed as " most distressing to the feelings, most
harassing in its prosecution, and teeming with the
most painful anxiety as to its results," calls fur some
more Substantial memorial than a barren vote of
thanks. To the members of the Alleged Lunatics'
Friend Society, we suggest the propriety of at once
commencing a subscription for the purpose of pre-
senting to Mr. PURNELL some substantial token of
national respect. He has, by his exertions, conferred
upon his country a great national benefit, and for
which the nation should show its gratitude.
After perusing the speeches of the Duke of BEAU^
rola and of Earl FITZHARDINGE, we cannot doubt
but that those noblemen will feel it to be 'their
duty, early in the course of the ensuing session of
Parliament, to call the attention of the House of Lords
to the necessity of introducing some measure
for the amendment of the laws relating to lunatic
asylums. If any further proof were needed of the
absolute necessity for the immediate introduction of
some such measure, we should find it in the report
presented by Mr. PURNELL to the Gloucester Quarter
Sessions on the day on which the thanks of the ma-
gistrates were voted to him by acclamation. In
speaking of one of these asylums in the court of
Gloucester, Mr. PcastELL says in his report :
" Notwithstanding my previous reports as to the de-
tention of re,tiews bore, it required my intervention to
release one during the past quarter, detained fir thirty-
five years—having bean quite sane, so far as could be
isce) twined,' for the chief part of that time, during
which, though the son and brother of farmers of pro-
perty, ho bad boon daily employed as an under scullion
and general labourer; the proprietors being thus paid
for him as a patient by the brother, who had not visited
him for twenty years, and oLtsining, besides, the benefit
of his daily work."
Of what use, we ask, are the visits of the Commis-
sioners of Lunacy ? How comes it, that although
visiting this asylum regularly they never discovered
the existence of this case ? or if they discovered it,
how comes it that it was left to Mr. PURNELL to re-
lease this patient? In the same asylum Mr. PURNELL
states that he found the following state of things to
exist :

" On one side of a dismal and damp yard, surrounded
by buildings and a lofty wall—are two strong rooms,
with stone floors, having a flue beneath, and lightel each
by a lantern lip it in the ceiling. In the one is a strong
box bedstaad; in the other a strong chair, with a pan in
the seat, the only furniture in each.
" During the year and a quarter that I have vist9d, a
}lnman being has been shut up the whole of every night
in the first—the whole of every day in the last. By day,
a shirt reaching no lower than the fustian jacket, a pair of
shoes, and fustian trowsers entirely open behinel, com-
plete his dress. His !arms are placed in stiff leathern
pipes, reaching below his hands, having iron staples at
the end t) connect them; they meet round his neck,
and are there locked. A strong loalier strap fattens
together the two elbows.
" lie I as never been taken out for exercise; occasion-
ally the door of the cell is opened, when he is allowed to
roll himself about on the ground."
Again we ask of what use is the inspection of the
Commissioners of Lunacy ? If during their repeated
visits they never discovered these cases, they were
guilty of carelessness so gross as to amount almost to
culpability ; if they were aware of the existence of these
abuses, and took no measures to remedy them, then no
terms we could use would be sufficiently strong to
characterise such conduct. At all events, unless these
statements of Mr. PURNELL are absolute fictions, the
necessity for an immediate re-organization of the
lunacy board is abundantly evident. But it is not
alone on account of sins of omission that the lunacy
board requires immediate re-organization, the sins of
commission are, according to Mr. PURNELL'S report,
of a more dangerous nature still. The Commissioners
are upholders of the dangerous doctrine of moral in-
sanity, and consider themselves justified in subjecting
to the discipline of a lunatic asylum persons who,
to use their own phraseology "have no other
defect of mind than a want of moral
sense." If this doctrine of moral insanity be true, then
is every criminal a lunatic, and all our gaols should
be turned into asylums. A youth, " whose only
defect of mind was want of moral sense," was ad-
mitted into an asylum in Dec. 1847 ; he was regu-
larly visited by the Commissioners during the years
1848 and 1849, and no steps were taken by them
for his discharge, but on the 10th of Nov. 1849, the asy-
lum (against the proprietor of which there is " no
imputation of attempt at imposition or concealment
of the truth,") was visited by Mr. PURNELL and his
brother magistrates. The following entries in the
Visiting Book show the history of the termination of
the case.
1849, Nov. 10, Entry of the Visitors :
" With respect to the case of (the patient) stated to
us to be one of moral insanity, it is evidently one which
will require very serious and anxious investigation on
our parts."
Signed by Mr. Purnell and the other Visitors.
1849, Nov. 29, Entry of the Commissioners :
" We have haft some conversation with (the patient)
who converses rationally, but who is stated to be en-
tirely destitute of the power of self-control, and to give
way in consequence, whenever the restrakt of the es-
tablishment is withdrawn, to vicious and dangerons pro-
pensities.
" We entertain doubts, however, how fir a house of
this description is the most suitable place for confirming
his mental and moral improvement, and we are glad,
therefore, to learn that arrangements are in progress for
removing him."
1849, Dec. 6, Copy of extract of letter from the
Secretary of the Commissioners to the Proprietors,
and produced by him to the Visitors, Dec. 1849:
" With reference to the case of the patient, which is
especially adverted to in the entry made by the same
Commissioners in the Patient's Book, I am directed to
express the opinion of the Commissioners that the case
is one which cannot be properly or beneficially treated
in a lunatic asylum, and they, there fore, recommend that
proper arrangements be made (by the patient's rela-
tives) for his removal from Castleton House, without
hese entries are thus commented on in the report :
" In the entry of 29th Nov., 1849, the question whe-
ther insanity, the only legal cause for the confinement,
did or did not exist, is not adverted to. Py that, and