The Sun.
London, England, 1826-01-28 00:00:00

[MORN IND HERALD.]

We ore glad to perceive that the intention is
at length seriously taken up of erecting a proper
asylum for the reception of pauper lunatics in
the county of Middlesex ; but we hope it is not
true that an idea is entertained of converting one
of the present prisons at Clerkenwell into such
asylum. To confound misfortune with crime is
too much the practice among us already,as may be
seen on reference to our workhouse system, corn-
pared %vitt' the cant, the sympathy, and refine-
ment which pervades the management of jails.—
But besides the objection of converting a prison
into n lunatic asylum, on account of the inapti-
tude of the nature of the building itself, it is
quite clear that the centre of the metropolis
cannot be a proper situation for such a build-
which should embrace all the advantages
of air and exercise, and all that can conduce to
the tranquility and care of the unfortunate
in-
►nates. There are said to be between six and

seven hundred of those unfortunate beings at
present confined in private mad-houses in and
about London. We do not mean to reflect an.
necessarily or severely on the keepers of such
places, or to credit all that is said of them ;
but that a public asylum, under the care of re.
sponsible and competent persons, would be pre-
ferable to them, in every respect, cannot, we
imagine, be doubted for a moment. In the ma-
nagemenfand regulation of such places it is mostde-
sirable that nothing should be taken for granted,
and, above all, that an unprofessional system of
inspection should be added to the medical sur-
vey which now takes place, in which Dr. A. and
Dr. 13. are much too liberal and courteous to
question the propriety of nay thing which has
the sanction of Dr. C. and Dr. D. In fact, the
system of taking things for granted, however con-
venient it may be found, is the constant source of
abuse on every subject, and in every department
where it is suffered to prevail. Nor is it less
absurd. Were Parliament, for instance, only to
take for granted that the King's Ministers—being
all honourable men, would permit nothing wrong
to exist in any branch of the public service,
its inquisitorial powers would become nu-
gatory,
and even its assembling at all al-
most unnecessary. Were we inclined on
this very subject to have taken any thing for
granted, it would have been that in the town
of Liverpool, eminent and enlightened as it
is, no such practices could exist as have lately
been detailed and unrefuted at a public meeting
of the trustees of that asylum. The subject is
one which cannot be too often or too anxiously
pressed upon the public attention, especially of
those in whose hands the means of regulating it
exists. To define the bounds between right and
wrong is no very easy task either for the mo.
ralist or the Statesman ; but to point out the
price limits between reason and the many
real and apparent aberrations from it, is much
more difficult, and amounts almost to an ho.
possibility. Of so fine a texture is the human
mind, and so differently do even men of science
who have made it their study judge of the same
actions and sensations, that that which appears
insanity to one, is only extreme sensibility or a
highly wrought feeling to another. And though
the theory of medical science is, it is to be hoped,
every day improving, it requires a more than or.
dinary share of skill and experience to define the
exact boundaries which distinguish a healthy, a
diseased, end actually unsound state of mind.—
But without entering upon points which may
admit of contradiction, no dispute, we apprehend,
can exist, that persons thus afflicted, or who may
be supposed to be so, ought to be treated, what.
ever may be their condition in life, with all the
care and tenderness possible. That this is not
the case, if not in most, certainly in too many
of the receptacles we allude to, there are abun.
dant proofs; and we trust that the publicity
which has of late been given to the subject will
have the effect of inducing the Legislature to
lose no time in extending its fostering hand and
authority in assuaging the wretched lot of those
who are afflicted with by far the greatest calamity
that '' flesh is heir to."