The Sun.
London, England, 1845-07-03 00:00:00

BILL.

On the motion of Lord ASHLEY, the House went
into Committee on this Bill, when

Mr. C. BERKELEY expressed a hope that the Noble
Lord would make some statement as to the objects of
the Bill, before they went into Committee.

Lord ASHLEY observed, that on a former occasion
he had occupied the House for upwards of an hour and
a quarter in explaining its objects ; at that time he went
fully into the details of the Bill, and he did not think it
necessary to say more at present.(Hear, hear.)
Clauses 1,2, and 3, were then agreed to.
Clauses 5,6, and 7, were then agreed to.
On clause 8 being proposed,
A short conversation took place, in which Mr.
Henley, Lord Ashley, Sir James Graham, and Mr. S.
Wortley took part, respecting union workhouses being
used as lunatic asylums, Mr. Henley complaining that
the clause did not provide a sufficient authority for the
regulation of such establishments.
After an explanation from Lord ASHLEY on this
point,
Mr. WAKLEY objected to the using of workhouses
for lunatic asylums. He did not believe it was possible
to treat chronic cases of lunacy in such places, the
arrangements being altogether so imperfect. It was con-
temptible to speak of the expense of providing proper
accommodation for chronic patients in workhouses and
other places, when it was considered that the cost on the
poor-rate would not be more than a farthing in the
pound, and when it was considered that the unfortunate
patients were labouring under the the most painful of
all maladies. _ _

Sir J. GRAHAM considered that the curable should
be separated from the incurable patients, as soon as pos-
sible after their admission. The clause gave the autho-
rities full power to effect those alterations which might
be rendered necessary for the accommodation of the pa-
tients, but expense ought not to be entirely disregarded.
Mr. WAKLEY would ask the Noble Lord if the con-
verting any part of the workhouses into lunatic asylums
would not be regarded as very hostile to the poorer
classes, and would it not be apt to bring the Legislature
of the country into very bad odour ? He was sure it
would, and the provision which enacted this, therefore,
was, in his opinion, very defective, and ought to be ex-
punged.
Lord ASHLEY said it would be the duty of the Com-
missioners to see that the internal regulations of these
asylums would not, in the slightest degree, interfere
with the other parts of the workhouses. It was calcu-
lated, too, that the appropriation of a portion of these
public buildings would save a considerable expenses
to the country ; and he trusted that they would
in ten years prove that they had not, as now, 17,500 lu-
notics, but something less than 10,000—perhaps less
than 8,000.
Mr. HENLEY did not object to Parliament adopting
means for securing the speedy cure of pauper lunatics,
but he was decidedly opposed to their doing it at the
expense of ether classes than those who were to be
benefited by their legislation.
Mr. HAWES and Mr. V. advocated a separa-
tion of the curable and incurable pauper lunatics con-
fined in the various asylums of the country, and
urged the Committee to adopt the views of the Hon.
Member for Finsbury.
Sir JAMES GRAHAM recommended the Noble
Lord who had charge of the Bill, so to modify the clause
as to require a separation of that part of the building, to
be coverted into a lunatic asylum, from that part to be
used and occupied as a workhouse.
Lord ASHLEY had no objection to adopt the recom-
mendation of his Right Hon. Friend, and the clause was
amended accordingly, and afterwards agreed to.
On the next clause being read,
Mr. M. GIBSON conceived that the town council
should have some controul over the money proposid to
be raised, and not to leave the entire controul of it to
the parties to whom the Bill now gave an irrespon-
sible power of making orders on the treasurer, which
the council would be compelled to find the funds to
meet.
Lord ASHLEY would have no objection, if the Hon.
Member would say what remedy he would propose.

Clause 26 was agreed to.
Clauses up to 40 inclusive were then passed without
opposition or discussion.
On clause 41 being put,
Mr. WA WN protested against the House proceeding
further at that late hour (one o'clock), especially as he
had great objections to that clause. He therefore moved
that the Speaker report progress.
The House resumed.
After a short discussion, in which Lord Ashley, Lord
Barrington, and Mr. Darby took part, each urging the
propriety of continuing,
Mr. WAWN consented to withdraw his motion on
condition that the consideration of that particular clause
be postponed.
The 41st clause was postponed accordingly.
Clauses up to 45 were then agreed to.
On the motion of Mr. WAKLEY,
The CHAIRMAN reported progress and obtained leave
to sit again on next Wednesday, at twelve o'clock.
The House then resumed.
SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY SOCIETIES
BILL.

Mr. WYSE moved that the Bill he committed.
Sir JAMES GRAHAM was opposed to any exten-
sion of the measure.
Mr. WARBURTON hoped that the Bill might be
abandoned.
After some desultory conversation clauses 1 and 2
were made part of the Bill, as were also clauses 3,4, 5,
and 6, and the Bill was ordered to be reported on Friday
next.
ART UNIONS BILL.

In answer to a question from Mr. WYSE,
Sir JAMES GRAHAM said- he should oppose the
Bill, as it would lead to a lottery in disguise.
Mr. WYSE defended the London Art Union, and
contended that it was not a lottery, as its rules were
submitted to the Government. He was anxious to have
an evening set apart for its discussion.
The Bill then went through Committee, and the re-
port was ordered to be brought up on Friday.

visible hurt to call for the coroner ; and so the victim may
die, and show, as gossips have it, a very handsome corpse,
whilst homicidal avarice with no drop of outward gore upon
his hands—no damning spots seen by the world's naked eye
—mixes in the world, a very respectable old gentleman ; a.
man who has a tile of receipts to show for everything ; a
man who never did owe a shilling ; and above all, a man
who takes all the good he gets as nothing more than a proper
payment for his exceeding respectability. He is a pattern
man ; and for such men heaven rains manna ; only in these
days the shower comes down in gold. Ebenezer Snipeton,
we say, had a high and therefore marketable opinion of him •
self. And yet, did Ebenezer's wife—his ripe, red-lipped
spouse of two-and-twenty—somehow touch her husband with
a strange, a painful humility. He had sixty iron winters—
and every one of them plain as an iron bar—in his face.
Time had used his visage as Robinson Crusoe used his wooden
calendar, notching every day in it. And what was worse,
though Time had kept an honest account—and what, indeed,
so honest, so terribly honest as Time ?—nevertheless, he had
so marked the countenance—it is a shabby, shameless trick
Time has with some faces,—and every mark to the thought-
less eye counted well-nigh double. And Snipeton knew this.
He knew, too, that upon his nose—half-way, like sentinel on
the middle of a bridge—there was a wart very much bigger
than a pea, with bristles, sticking like black pins in it. Now,
this wart Ebenezer in his bachelor days had thought of like
a philosopher ; that is, he had never thought about it. Nay ,
his honeymoon had almost waned into the cold, real moon
that was ever after to blink upon his marriage life, ere
Ebenezer thought of his wrinkled, pouch-like cheeks; of his
more terrible wart. And then did every' bristle burn in it,
as though it was turned into red hot wire; then was he
plagued, tormented by the thought of the wart, as by some
avenging imp. He seemed to have become all wart : to be
one unsightly- excrescence. The pauper world envied the
happiness of Ebenezer Snipeton—with such wealth, with
such a wife, oh, what a blessed man ! But the world knew
not the torments of the wart ! And wherefore was Ebenezer
thus suddenly mortified ? We have said that he had a wife
as young and fresh, and beautiful as spring. And therefore,
after a short season, was Ebenezer in misery. He looked at
his wife's beauty, and then he thought of his withered face—
that felon wart ! In her loveliness—like a satyr drinking at
a crystal fount—he saw his deformity. Was it possible she
could love him ? The self-put question—and he could not
but ask it,—with her, alone, in bed, at board—that torment-
ing question still would whisper, snake-voiced in his ear,—
could she love him ? And his heart—his heart that here-
tofore had been cold and blooded like a fish—would shrink
and tremble, and dare not answer. True it was, she was
obedient—too obedient. She did his bidding promptly, hum-
bly, as though he had bought her for his slave. And so, in
truth, he had : and there had been a grave man of the church,
grave witnesses, too, to bind the bargain. Verily, he had
bought her ; and on her small white finger—it was plain to all
who saw her—she wore the manacle of her purchaser."
Snipeton returns and finds St. James at his house.
His jealousy is aroused, and devoutly does he hope the
wound may prove mortal. St. James, however, recovers
his strength in the course of a few hours. St. Giles
is brought to Dovesnest to be identified, but on entering
the room of St. James it is found that he is gone.
These chapters are succeeded by an admirable apology
for those whom the world is pleased to misname misan-
thropes, after which we have an excellent paper on the
state of the town poor in Scotland. " Unfashion-
able Movements" is the title of a series of stories
illustrative of the trials of the poor, and the
" Corn Lords Tragedy" is a fine Coleridge-like ballad
from the pen of the author of Orion—a poem not
unworthy to stand by the side of the Ancient Mariner.
Juniper Hedgehog continues his quaint and caustic
comments on the events of the month, and the historian
for Young England gives us the reign of Henry the
First. This History for Young England promises to be
a very valuable work.

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAI EVENING, JULY 3, IMS.