The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-24 00:00:00

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

The Mutine, 12, Commander Crawford, put into Table
Bay on the 17th ult , having been ashore while chasing a
slaver, which she made a prize of, with 450 slaves on board.
Owing to her leaking very much she was to be hove down,
when, if her damage was discovered to be considerable, she
was to sail for England to repair it.
The Vindictive, 50, Captain Seymour, bearing the flag of
the Commander-in-Chief, Vice-Admiral Austen, was at Ha-
lifax on the Ist instant. The Scylla, 16, Commander Sharpe,
was to sail on the sth for England, her period of service hav-
ing expired.
The Comet, steam-vessel, Lieutenant-Commander Pretty-
man, left yesterday for Plymouth, with supernumeraries for
the experimental squadron.
The Wasp, 16, commander Ussher, captured on the Ist of
June, off Lagos, a Brazilian slaver, a new and beautiful ves-
sel. She sent her to Sierra Leone, where she arrived on the
16th, and was condemned on the 24th.
APPOINTMENTS.
Rear-Admiral.—Sir Samuel Pym, K.C.8., to command
the experimental squadron, vice Parker, resigned from ill
health.
Commodore.—Captain C. Pring, C. 8., to be commodore of
the second class, to hoist his broad pennant on board the
Imaum. 72,' at Jamaica, as second in command on the West
India and North American station, vice Sharpe, resigned.
Lieutenants.—ll. Stuart, to the Apollo; G. K. E. Wright,
W. G. Mansfield, C. Rainer, and W. N. Lockyer, to the Pe-
nelope, the three latter additional; W. G. Deane, to the
Vindictive; W. Moorsom, from the Excellent, to the Rod-
ney.
Paymasters and Pursers.—A. Jones, to the Helena; G. T.
Plutubly, to the Juno.
Mates.—M. H. M. Monday, to the Excellent ; H. Nelson,
to the Heroine.
Second Master.—H. Clements, to the Alban.
Master's Assistant —A. C. Webb, to the Victory.
Midshipmene—N. F. Spencer, to the Mutine; R. B. Webb,
to the Victory ; F. Moresby, to the Canopus; J. A. Sandford,
to the St. Vincent.
Naval Cadets.—G. T. Gordon, to the Kingfisher; C. J.
Lindsay, to the President.

COAST-GUARD.

station, and appointed to St. Alban's-head, vice Hill; Lieu-
Appointments.—Lieutenant C. W. Pears, to command a,
tenant W. R. Brooman, to Dunbar station (appointment to
Bournmouth cancelled), vice Wyld, deceased.
Removals.—W. Curteis, Chief Officer, Kilkearne, Galway,
to Milkcove, vice Corydon, superseded.
PORTSMOUTH, MONDAY.—Rear-Admiral Dacres, Com-
mander-in-Chief on the Cape of Good Hope station, and
acting Commander-in-Chief and Admiral-Superintendent at
this port, has gone on Admiralty leave this day. His flag
was struck on board the President, 50, Captain Stanley (his
flag-ship), this evening at sunset.
Four of the advanced ships at this port are ordered to be
still further advanced by having their topmasts fitted. They
are the Britannia, 120; Vengeance, 84; Bellerophon, 78 ; and
the Pembroke. 72.
The Nelson, 120, advancing in the basin, is ordered to be
docked to have her bottom examined, and to complete repairs.
The Admiralty have not yet decided whether the Neptune,
120, or this ship shall be the flag-ship for Admiral Sir Charles
Ogle, the nominated successor to Sir Charles Rowley, as Com-
mander-in-Chief at this port ; or whether the St. Vincent
shall be retained for that duty.
The Carysfort, 26, has been removed from the basin under
the shears to be masted, when she will be ready for commission.
The Harlequin, 16, was taken into dock this morning to be
fitted for the pendant.
The Nautilus, 10, Lieutenant-Commander Macdonald, hav-
ing completed her refit, and replenished stores and provisions,
sailed this morning to resume her protection of the fisheries on
the Sussex coast.
ihe Dasher steamer, Commander Sherringham, left this
morning to resume her surveying duties in the Solent.
The Fairy, royal yacht tender, Master-Commander Ro-
berts, came up on Saturday from Cowes. She returned this
morning, and again came into harbour at noon. She came
as far as Fort Moncton under canvass as well as steam. Her
speed appeared extraordinarily great. She landed dispatches
and retnmed to Osborne this afternoon. She will shortly be
laid up for the winter.
The Apollo troop-ship, Commander Radcliffe, sailed from
Spithead this morning for Cork, where she will embark de-
tachments of the 73d for service at the Cape of Good Hope.
She got under way about half-past ten o'clock.
The Earl of Hardwicke, Indiaman, Captain Drew, a splen-
did vessel of 1,300 tons, the property of Mr. Green, of
Blackwall, got under way three-quarters of an hour before
the Apollo, and waited for her to have a trial of sailing down
the Channel. They both stood off on the starboard tack
together, close hauled, wind W.N.W., then stood in again,
when the wind shifted to W.S.W., they stood off again at
2 40 P.M., when the wind again changed to W.N.W., as at
starting. The Earl of Hardwicke went to windward until
3 r.st., when the Apollo went to svindi=ard of her, hand over
hand. The Apollo is considered a " crack" sailer, and was
chosen in 1819 by George IV. for the royal yacht, and fitted
up with great magnificence in this harbour for the royal
especial service, but she never carried his Majesty to sea, and
was dismantled, after vast sums of money had been expended
upon her.
A screw-propelled steam-frigate, to carry 36 guns, is or-
dered to be laid down on the design of Mr. Finchatn, master
shipwright of this dockyard, in the same dock the Centaur
now occupies, on the latter vessel being floated out. Her tim-
bers are ready, and arranged on either side of the dock.
The Lame, 18, Commander Brisbane, arrived at St. He-
lena on the 24th of July from the Island of Ascension.
The Princeza, the prize captured by the Mutine, 12, Com-
mander Crawford, arrived at St. Helena from Madagascar on
the 23d of July, and was sent on the following day to Sierra
Leone for adjudication.
The Albatross, 16, Commander Yorke, arrived at St. He
lena from Benguela on the 25th of July.
The Batt naval lighter, Sweetman master, arrived last
night from Deptford, with victualling stores for the Royal
Clarence-yard. She reports that on Friday afternoon, as she
was coming down Sea-reach, on her way from Deptford to
Gosport, a seaman named Alexander Germain, whilst heav-
ing the lead, fell overboard and sank immediately. The
jmate, Thomas Hassard, who was at the helm, instantly
umped into a boat astern to render assistance, but his promp-
titude was unavailing, as he never saw Germain again. The
under-current runs very strong at the spot where the unfor-
tunate man went overboard, and is supposed to have carried
him beyond the reach of human aid. The crew of the Ilatt
noiea' nre Gosport,
lemanft awaawisii(rategaeadn\d,tewrinretye,-
steadyB3i.oxti' cnahganrcaaiticii fdeerr.eonf H:
" crept" for the body for some hours, but without success.
sT
unfortunatelyi!oke ed, r
He
pvre o hasr
vided for.
The Athol troop-ship, Master Commander Pearn, remains
at Spithead awaiting orders.
DEVONPORT.—The Experimental Squadron arrived here
before daylight on Saturday morning, the St. Vincent lead-
ing, attended by the Rattler and Stromboli steamers. The
St. Vincent saluted the flag of Admiral Sir John West, Com-
mander-in-Chief; and the Urania (Neapolitan frigate) sa-
luted the flag of Rear-Admiral Parker (who continues very
unwell).
The Commander in-Chief, Sir John West, struck his flag
(blue at the main) on board the Sylph tender, at half-past
ten o'clock on Saturday morning, and hoisted it on board the
Queen, 110—his intended flag-ship.
Admiral Parker struck his flag, as Commander-in-Chief of
the Experimental Squadron, at sunset on Saturday evening;
and Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Pym took up the command,
hoisting his flag (red at the mizen) on board the St. Vincent.
During the absence of Rear-Admiral Pym in command of
the squadron, the duties of Superintendent of this Dockyard
will be conducted by Mr. Lonsdale, Master-Attendant.
The court-martial ordered to be held at Cork on Lieutenant
Leigh, of the Stromboli steam-sloop, for striking a stoker,
but postponed in consequence of an informality in the war-
rant, will now be held on board the flag-ship at this port.
Mr. Mills, late Master of the San Josef, is appointed addi-
tional Master to the Caledonia for service ashore, for which
he will receive, in addition to his pay, 801. per annum.
The Endymion, 44, advance frigate, was taken into No. 5
Dock on Friday to have her bottom examined and cleaned.
The Dee steam-transport, Master-Commander Driver, left
on Friday for Dublin with the remainder of the 49th.
The Pestonjee Bomanjee transport put into this port on
Thursday night in consequence of foul weather. She is
bound to Hobart Town with convicts from the river.
The
Goodwill navy lighter, Pledge master, sailed on Fri-
day with stores for Portsmouth,

The Heroine, 6, Commander Edmunds, is nearly ready for
sea. Lieutenant A. G. Glasscott (1841), and Mr. Horatio
Nelson, mate (1844), are the last appointmen.s to her.
The Jackal and Bloodhound steamers are to have another
trial of their sea-going qualities this week, before being
trusted on a foreign station.
The Daring, 12, is ordered to Portsmouth, to complete the
repair of her defects.
The defects of the Experimental Squadron have been " re-
ported," and are being repaired as expeditiously as possible,
in order to get the ships to sea again without delay.
Rear-Admiral Hyde Parker has left in the Rattler steam-
sloop, Commander Smith, for the seat of his duties, the dock-
yard, Portsmouth.

VISIT TO A PRIVATE ASYLUM'
FOR THE INSANE OF THE HIGHER CLASSES.
(From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.)
When lately in London, we received an invitation to dine
at Wykehouse, near Brentford, with Dr. and Mrs.
Costello and their patients. What would the " Man of
Feeling," who wrote a sentimental description of the
horrors of Bedlam sixty years ago, with its ferocious
maniacs, and more ferocious keepers—its cells, and straw, and
chains, and scourges—have said to such an invitation ! In
one of the richest and most beautiful vicinages of London,
about a mile up the bill from Sion House, shaded and dig-
nified by oaks, ancient elms, and blooming horse- chestnuts,
and adorned by shrubbery, flower-bed, and general vernal
verdure, we found Wykehouse, a seat of the Earl of Jersey,
and rented by Dr. Costello, as an establishment for the safety
and cure of the richer insane. The bell at the gate was an-
swered by a servant, who conducted us to the house through
a perfect flush of lilacs, laburnums, rhododendrons, and
it, wering shrubs of all descriptions; and, as one symptom of
the safety of the place, we met a nurse carrying an infant, a
child of the doctor's.
As the family had begun dinner, we were introduced at
once to the dining-room, in which sat at table the master and
mistress of the house, with eight gentlemen, all patients.
We were cordially received by our host and his lady, and
introduced to the rest of the company, who rose to welcome
us. During the meal, we were the objects of much polite
attention. Each individual seemed to wish to take his
share of the duty of dispensing hospitalities ; offering
the condiments, recommending the dish near him,
remarking on the topics of the season and the
day, and showing much curiosity to hear our
news and ascertain our sentiments. During the time we
were at table, not a word, look, or gesture occurred which
could have raised the slightest suspicion that we were not in
the company of the perfectly sane. One of the patients, a
clergyman, who performs the religious exercises of the house,
including a sermon on Sunday, was asked to return thanks,
which he did with becoming reverence, when the eight gen-
tlemen rose and retired from the table, leaving us with our
host and hostess.
We were in a spacious and elegant dining-room built b
the celebrated " Jack Robinson," who, before Joseph Hume 's
time, feathered his nest from the consolidated fund to so au-
dacious an extent, that Sheridan called the attention of Par-
liament to his practices; and when challenged to name the
delinquent, declined, though he added he could as easily have
named him as say "Jack Robinson." The dining-room was built
for the visits of George 111., of whom Robinson was a favourite
He built extensive ranges of bedrooms in barrack fashion
for numerous guests of rank, of whom his lavish house was
always full; which apartments have been found conveniently
convertible to the present purposes of the mansion. Before
leaving the table for a walk in the grounds and gardens, we
were favoured by our host with a brief exposition of his
mode of dealing with his patients, powerfully suggesting
the advance which has been made in the treatment of
the insane during the last fifty years. The inmates of
this establishment are under no personal restraint whatever.
There is not a strait-waistcoat, a belt, or pair of hand-mufflers,
under the roof. Taking advantage of the fact, that there
is much more sanity than insanity in the great majority
of the insane, and of the improved knowledge now ac-
quired on the nature of insanity itself, the paroxysms of
which alone require watching, Dr. and Mrs. Costello (for
the lady does a large and most important part of the
duty) direct all their moral energies upon the balance of
sanity remaining in the patient's favour, and always
with the most satisfactory results. Confidence is re-
posed ; the patient's word of honour is trusted to,
and seldom if ever broken. The beautiful grounds and
gardens are freely ranged ; even the neighbourhood is
free to some. An elegant drawing-room, where the
lady presides, is open the place secures decorum. The
lady's power is an interesting phenomenon ; it seems to
be, and really is, greater than her husband's. None but
gentlemen can come into her mild and gentle presence ;
and we were assured that a look from her, still more, a
moment be in danger of forgetting himself. It is quiet caution, will check a Arong man who may for the
re-
markable how seldom the hallucinations of the patients
come out into the dining-room or drawing-roem. These
are voted " parish business," and a bore ; and although
one of the party might just have discovered the longi-
tude or the perpetual motion, another received the
thanks of Parliament for a victory, or a third a judg-
ment in Chancery, declaring him master of millions, not
a word would be heard on those tempting topics in the
drawing-room or at the dinner-table of Wykehouse. A
breach of these mild yet rigid laws would be followed
by the temporary exclusion of the individual, with the full
approbation of the rest. Abuse of liberty is punished by
narrowing by degrees its limits, till it is at last circum-
scribed by the wall of a paved court. No one needs to stay
long there; but enlargement has its conditions, perfectly
intelligible to every patient in the establishment.
When we walked out, we saw some of the gentlemen
playing with the child, others reading in the beautiful
groves, and three or four assisting Mrs. Costello to cull
and pack an enormous bouquet of lilacs and hawthorn
blossom for a jar in the drawing-room. We joined the
party, and assisted, and were much struck with the
gallantry, politeness, and respect with which the lady
was treated. This direction of female influence is a new
element in its various applications in society. It re-
forms the imprisoned criminal ; it purifies and huma-
nises the educators of the young of the rougher sex ;
it exercises a power over the insane themselves that
renders them as pliant as children. Yet Mrs. Costello
is a slight, little woman, whom any one of the subjects
over whom she rules could annihilate in an instant. In-
deed, we should say that the insane are peculiarly amen
able to just such an influence ; for their malady in most
cases produces a simplicity of general character, often almost
child-like.
We assembled at tea in the drawing-room, and en-
joyed an hour of general conversation, when the party
again dispersed through the grounds; and as we drove off in
the twilight of a beautiful June evening, we had hands held
out to us by the near, and hats lifted by the distant, till the
gate shut behind us, and we were on our road to London.
On our way, Dr. Costello, who accompanied us, showed us a
villa or cottage a mile or two from Wykehouse, which, on
account of its romantic groves and large lake teeming with
fish, he has taken on lease, as a sort of occasional holiday and
pic-nic resort for his well-behaved patients.
Dr. Costello had just then published a letter to Lord
Ashley, on the reform of private asylums for the insane.
A copy of that pamphlet is now before us. It is an appeal
in behalf of the rich insane for legislative protection.
The Bill lately introduced by Lord Ashley contemplates
chiefly the insane poor; not observing the fallacy, that,
because the sane rich are well able to take care of
not merely to inadequate them-
selves,accommoda-
the insane rich must be so too. There is,
but all the imaginable evils unfor-
tunately,attend-
a prejudice which leads the friends of the in-
objects of speculation. Dr. Costellot
sane to seek extreme privacy for them, and thus they
eitbnixeogeponotmsahesneeirdextthbreecoeastedinmdeiefintncies of the generality of private
houses for the insane, and recommends the' ample and
interesting scenery which is found in his own esta-
blishment. Private asylums should never be in cities ; they
should be in cheerful rural situations, where the inmates
may avail themselves of the composing and health-re-
storing effects of husbandry and gardening. Within
doors, the patient should find no deprivation of his ac-
customed conveniences, comforts, luxuries, and even
elegancies ; but rather an improvement in them all.
While deprecating the idea of surrounding the patient
of condition with unnecessary deprivations in externals.
the author says—" While delirium runs high, it is true,
external objects will be too little noticed to suggest un-
favourable comparisons ; but this stage is often evanes-
cent, often only periodical, and the bitter pang is felt in
full force when the mist begins to clear away. The poor
derive benefit from the better food and better care of
the public asylum, and can we doubt the influence of
causes relatively the same in regard to the rich ? The
internal arrangements, therefore, of a private asylum,
should be in accordance with the tastes and occupations
of the inmates; and the tedium of uniformity must be
prevented by such aids as are employed for the same
purpose in every-day life. Billiards, books, and music,
are not enough. There must be social re-unions, and
even dancing, with a view to affording opportunities of
mixing in the society of persons of sound mind. This is a
point in the moral treatment of great importance. To have
the world and its recreations brought, from time to time,
into contact with the insane, is less valuable even as an
amusement or a pastime, than as a means of satisfying
them, especially when allowed to meet their friends or
relatives, not only that they are not forgotten, but that
their return to that world, its business and its duties, is still
looked for with anxiet7 and delight. How much of happi-
ness, how much of sanity, do they secure by this oft-pre-
sented idea
"If one could forget early impre sions, and in-
stances of proved delinquency in some ill-conducted establish-
mants, we should modify our feelings in a great degree as re-
gards private asylums. Proofs of the most interesting de-
scription abound, to show that these are anything but places
to inspire horror.
" When well-conducted, and there are many such,
mirth and cheerfulness—not forced or feigned—appear to
be - pervading influence. Lasting friendships are often
formed; and many whom restored mental health recalls
to the world, experience lively and sincere regrets in
parting with those whose care or companionship had so-
laced them under so heavy a dispensation ; and many, too,
would remain, preferring to any other abode that which
friends load consigned them to in the hour of affliction.
"The fami'y group in an asylum is, or ought to be, as-
sociated in conversation, light reading, and all the diversified
occupations that embellish refined society, with no other
restraint. than what individual circumstances may require,
and the enlightened kindness of the head of the house may
dictate.

"In this ideal of an establishment, the patients are the
guests and associates of the physician and his family, and
without such dictatorship and association it cannot be re-
alised. In his own person are combined the charac-
ters of parent, friend, guide, and physician, and this
amounts to saying that he is indispensable. To him is
assigned the task of moderating the impressions from
without—of regulating, through the medium of his
own family, the desirable degree of intercourse with the
world ; his table and his family circle are the sole, safe chan-
nels for such intercourse. Here the first public efforts of a
returning healthy mental activity meets its needed encou
ragements, and here, too, the poor sufferer, doomed never is
know the delights of recovery, experiences protection, and
even pleasure, to the full measure of his blighted faculties.
Advantages so obviously desirable are paced completely, and
perhaps voluntarily, out of the reach of patients kept at home
or in private families, and the case is even worse where
they are confided to keepers or servants, with the occasional
attendance of a medical man. Under such circum-

stances, cure is not only likely to be marred. but it may
be wilfully and maliciously prevented. The continued
employment of these attendants depends on the con-
tinuation of the malady; the resources available for moral
treatment from uninterrupted intercourse with persons of
their own station, are wasted, from their inferiority of social
position, want of education, or irritability of disposition,
I,4,hiFh in the circumstances we are contemplating, is uncon-

trolled, and therelbre the more likely to arise. Fretfulness
and bickering, as permanent conditions of the patient's mind,
induced by the_ small excesses of an unreasoning domestic

authority, which he is ever ready to dispute, either in fear
or in anger, can have no other than unfavourable conse.

quences. 4iidiStrust-;;u;adrend;his attendant, and the latter,
goaded by what he considers injustice and ingratitude in the
patient, gives way to peevishness, and, by way of beginning
the monotony of the occupation, repays Wm with sour looks,
coarse and contemptuous language, neglect, or something
worse. The effect of treatment in which caprice and recrinu-
.

nation, waywardness, and spite, hold suCh unhappy sway,

may be easily foreseen. The patient has none of the repose
so essential to comfort, and indispensable for recovery. His
views of things, already prismatised by a disordered brain,
are still more bewildered by the false position in which he is
placed, and the unfavourable circumstances by which he is
surrounded. The time when cure was possible passes quickly
away; the excitement subsides into a calm; the disease
changes its character; the acute is followed by the chronic
stage, and the brightness of the mind is dimmed for ever."
The author states the argument for the early treatment of
insanity as concisely as powerfully :—" The protection of the
brain from the effects of the high irritation and congestion
that prevail in the acute stage of mania, can only be secured
by vigorous and prompt medical treatment at the very outset.
The penalty of neglect er delay on this point, when not promptly
fatal, will be to reduce the brain, the organ of the mind, to t
ruin, which no effort of skill or kindness can repair
The proper use, therefore, of the time for medical treat-
ment is all important. The period for the moral treatment
begins only when the first violence of the storm has spent
itself. The best authorities on the statistics of this form
of cerebral disease assert that it is curable, in the vast ma-
jority of cases, when the proper means are employed at the
proper time.
" But where shall we look for such a well organised sys-
tem of moral management for the rich and the elevated,
as will meet the wants and habits of this class? This is,
in fact, the grand desideratum, the difficulty to be pro-
vided for. Where are we to find the ever-watchful kindness
—the considerate forbearance in the discharge of duties often
irksome, harassing, and even dangerous—the ready inven-
tiveness to suggest new thoughts to cheer and amuse ? We
shall look for them in vain in the crippled resources for such
objects, in the private lodging or the private family, where
the rich man is doomed to solitary confinement in a modified
form, and in the dreariness of his isolation, to expiate an in-
firmity as if it had been a crime. This is a blotch on our
civilisation from which our continental neighbours are in
progress of being freed. 'With us, alas !it will continue to
prevail until the apathy, ignorance, and selfish pride that so
extensively provide such a doom for fellow-creaturds, who
might still enjoy the benefit of superior arrangements, shall
have disappeared, and given place to sounder views and feel-
ings on this subject."
The author advances a new idea, the voluntary resort of
the "nervous"—those (and they are many) who dread the
coming disease—to the care and treatment of a private
asylum. This the law, as it stands, renders impossible;
for it requires the certificate of two medical men that the
patient is of unsound mind. This might be altered. To
prevent abuse, the free and voluntary resort might
have its own (conditions, and such patients might
be made subject to the inquiries and inspection
of visiting commissioners, in the same manner as
the others. "But these benefits, important as they
are, would not be the sole ones resulting from a
change of the law. The very character of the asylums
would be changed. From a prison which it is now so
universally regarded, it would become an hospital, and
those prejudices which now operate so extensively against
the recovery of persons att. eked with insanity, would
disappear. Every enlightened physician acknowledges
and laments the extent of this evil. Persons so attacked,
and for whom recovery might be calculated on, almost
with certainty, had they been promptly transferred to
such a place, are, from a notion that kindness and atten-
tion will be all that is required, restrained from sending
their relatives from home. This mistaken kindness is
fatal. In the experiment of love and duty, the time is con-
sumed between alternating hopes and fears; and when the
asylum is resorted to at last, it receives a poor fellow-crea-
ture, for whom, at the beginning, cure was possible, but who
is henceforward an irreparable wreck, doomed to live on,
exhibiting the gradual extinction of the noblest faculties.
It is with the brain as with the other organs of the body;
the congestion or irritation that can be moderated and sub-
dued at first, if allowed to persist and make progress un-
checked, will at last produce such morbid changes in the
organ itself, that it becomes incurably incapable of perform-
ing healthy functions. And why, then, make an exception
as regards the affections of the brain, which experience and
common sense condemn in regard to other organs ? In
pneumonia or bronchitis, who would be absurd enough
to confine the treatment to kindness, quiet, and water-
gruel? And shall our conduct be less wise or less ener-
getic in the case of the brain than in that of the lungs,
involving, as the perversion of the cerebral action does,
a double death ? It is quite time that the views and
practice of society should be changed on this point ; it
is one of startling urgency and importance, now that a
closer view of this awful scourge (rendered so much
more destructive by unreflecting kindness) and its statistical
bearings, have all but proved that out of every 500 of the
population, we have one case of insanity. The pernicious
practice that inflicts so much evil on the community, calls
aloud for animadversion: it scatters deso!ation and mourning
amongst families—blasting happiness and hope: it cannot be
palliated—it mustihe abandoned."
After some judicious observations on the importance of
numbers and classifications in the arrangements for the care
of the insane, the letter concludes as follows :—" None of
our private asylums come up, in all respects, to the ideal
we have been tracing. lam not acquainted,' says the
late Sir William Ellis, with any asylum at all coming up
to my notions of what an asylum for the rich ought to be ;
but I still think that it is perfectly practicable to provide for
them in an institution possessing every' means for cure, and
every requisite for their comfort and happiness, combined
with but little risk of their being improperly detained.'
"But it will perhaps be said that a comprehensive plan,
embracing the means of treatment and liberal accommo-
dation for the rich, will be above the reach of the well-
educated middle classes. It should not be so. The ques-
tion of accommodation should decide that of the terms
of payment. A patient requiring several rooms, special at-
tendance, and a separate table, should contribute to the
funds of the establishment a larger sum in proportion than
those who are contented with the accommodation provided
for all. This is, in fact, the principle on which a family
hotel, as well as many other forms of public enterprise, are
carried on. Upon a graduation of this kind, in the working
of which there is no practical difficulty, persons paying from
601. or 701. a-year, to 2001. and 300/., might be provided for
on a scale of comfort totally unknown either in private
lodgings or in our private asylums, as they are at present
conducted.

"The superior administration of such an establithment
should be aided by a committee of philanthropic persons,
whose duty it should be to see that every improved method
of treatment recommended by experience should be adopted.
There should be no private arrangements for the treatment
of lunatics, and no private asylums in the present sense of
the word."

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
(YESTERDAY.)
MANSION-ROUSE.

George Stratford, a man of respectable appearance and good
address, was brought before the Lord Mayor, upon the charge
of having obtained money and clothes from the Rev. Michael
Gibbs, his Lordship's son, under fraudulent practices.
Mr. Sturgeon, the principal clerk to the Mendicity Society, at.
tended to prosecute the prisoner.
The Rev. Mr. Gibbs, Vicar of Christ Church, Newgate.street,
stated, that on Saturday the 6th of September, the prisoner called
upon him, and represented himself to be the Honourable Mr.
Stratford:; declared that he was in a condition of extreme
want, in fact, next to starving; that he had called upon the
Lord Mayor, but not finding his Lordship at home, he had come
to witness in the hope of receiving the assistance which would
enable him to go into the service of a Mr. Edwards, of Houn.
slow, at some powder-mills there, whose only ground of hesita.
tion about forming an engagement with him was, that he had
not better clothes. Witness gave the prisoner eighteenpence,
and told him at what hour he could see and communicate with the
Lord Mayor. On the same evening the prisoner returned to
witness, stated that he had seen the Lord Mayor, and exhi-
bited a five-shilling-piece, which be said he had received from
his Lordship. Witness then gave him a bundle of clothes, con-
sisting of coat, waistcoat, and trousers. The prisoner said, upon
receiving the clothes, that he should go at once to Hounslow
to secure the situation, and promised to inform witness or the
Lord Mayor of the result of his application for the appointment.
Some days afterwards the prisoner called at the Mansion-house,
and stated to witness that he had obtained the situation, but he
stood in need of six shillings, in order to be enabled to remove his
wife to Hounslow. Witness accordingly lent him six shillings,
which he promised to return at the end of the week; but the
promise was not performed, neither did he make his appearance,
and it was subsequently ascertained that the statements had no
foundation in fact.
William Horseford, an officer of the Mendicity Society, stated
that he went to Hounslow, to the powder. mills, and found that
there was no Mr. Ed vards there. He then called upon Mr.
Carlis, the proprietor of powder-mills in that place, to make in.
quiry, and was told that there was no such person there, and that
no such person as Mr. Edwards had been known there for twenty.
seven years.
The LORD MAYOR desired to be informed whether the prisoner
was known to the establishment of the Mendicity Society 7
Horseford replied that the man had been known to the Mendicity
Society since about the year 1837 ; and added that a begging peti-
tion had been found upon him, and that witness had known him
as an associate of persons who lived by mere begging, and one of
whom had been lately tried at the Central Criminal Court.
The Loan MAYOR—Now, prisoner, what have you to say in an.
ewer to this very serious charge The prisoner —My Lord, lam
the son of the Earl of Aldborough, the son and heir of that noble-
man, and I have been deserted by my father. I have a wife and
family to support, and I have made every effort to support them.
I hare worked in the docks, and at all sorts of menial employments,
and my father, although in the enjoyment of 16,0001. a year, has
wholly abandoned me. What could I do, my Lord ? lam in a
state of utter destitution.

The LORD MAYOR—What you have stated has nothing to do with
the charge against you. The charge against you is, that you ob
tained alms under fraudulent pretences.
The prisoner—l solemnly declare that lam the legitimate son
of the Earl of Aldborough.
Mr. Sturgeon, the clerk to the Mendicity Society, stated that
there was no truth in the assertion of the prisoner, or as to the
legitimacy of his birth. There might be ground for supposing
that he was the illegimate offspring of the Earl.
The prisoner—I am the son and heir of Lord Aldborough, and
I have been deserted, together with ray two sisters, by my father,
who is new at Doncaster, and has 16,0001. a year clear property.
The LORD Mavoa—You say nothing in explanation of your
statement about the situation at Hounslow ? Prisoner—l admit I
was wrong there. I was guilty of having misrepresented in that
instance, but I can prove that I have worked at the docks, and
that I have been willing to undergo the greatest drudgery.
The officers of the Mendicity Society assured his Lordship that
the prisoner was an incorrigible beggar, and that he was in the
habit of persisting, with great apparent candour, in whatever
statement he considered best adapted to his object of working upon
the sympathies of the humane and generous people who abounded
in London. As for the idea of labour, it never entered into the
man's imagination for a moment, but he had a wonderful capabi.
lity of varying the circumstances of his fantastic distresses, and
so far could be called industrious.

The LORD MAYOR—I consider the case a very bad one indeed. You
came to me, and mentioned, in the most plausible manner, certain
circumstances as having occurred which had never taken place.
I relieved what I considered to be your immediate necessities, and
I told you to let me see you again. I then, at your entreaty, let
you have a sovereign, which you said you would return in a week,
but I told you that the repayment would answer at the end of a
month, when your wages at Hounslow would capacitate you to
make restitution. In everything you have acted the impostor.
I know all about it, and I know with whom you went into a pub.
lic.house when you received the money which the recital of }our
pretended misfortunes wrung out of me, so that my experience of
your conduct affords an additional argument in justification of the
decision to which I come upon the evidence before me. We have
here abundance of real objects to exercise our pity upon. I con-
vict you as a rogue and vagabond, and sentence you to hard
labour in Bridewell for three calendar months.
The prisoner—What could I do, my Lord ? I acknowledge
that I deceived you ; but what on earth could I do? lam en-
titled to the rank and fortune of a nobleman, and I am corn.
pletely destitute.

The prisoner was then removed from the bar, In bitter terms
ascribing to his parent's unnatural conduct the whole train of his

calamities.

ous manner of the three, who joined each other upon a signal,
which seemed to be well understood by them, caused them to be
watched, and one of them having been observed to quit a tobacco.
shop hastily, inquiries were made there, and it was discovered that
a counterfeit fourpenny piece had been uttered in payment for a
pennyworth of tobacco. The prisoners were accordingly pur-
sued and taken into custody, but their associate escaped. On
subsequent inquiries at the different shops the prisoners had
visited, it was found they had uttered counterfeit fourpenny pieces
at each, which were so well executed, and bore such a similitude
to the genuine coin, that it was a matter of considerable difficulty
to detect the difference. Some of the base money was produced,
and it was stated that when the prisoners were taken into custody,
each of them had a genuine sixpence in his possession, from which
Circumstance it was inferred that the man who escaped was the
person who supplied them with the base money, and remained out-
side the different shops in the event of a discovery taking place.
Mr. Corrismwt said that utterers of counterfeit money
were on the increase at that side of the water, and that it
behoved tradesmen and others to be particularly on their
guard, as base fourpenny pieces were a description of coin
that were not in much circulation, and therefore might be easily
taken for the genuine, especially as those produced were ouch a very
close imitation of them. The Magistrate then asked the prisoners
what account they gave of themselves ?—The prisoners said they
had very little to say, only that they were not aware the fourpenny
pieces they had passed were bad ; that they lived at Whitcchapel,
and had come over to the south side of the river for a walk.
The MAGISTRATE said that it was incalculable the losses sus-
tained by tradesmen owing to the quantity of base money uttered
by persons like the prisoners, and that Ls he had very little doubt
they would be identified by the Solicitor of the Mint, he should
therefore remand them until Saturday.

HARMONIC INHARMONICS —William Regan, a young man with
his face disfigured from bruises, was charged with committing a
violent assault on a policeman of the M division, and with destroy-
ing a quantity of his mother's property.
It appeared that on the preceding night the defendant was chair-
man of an harmonic meeting in Tooley. street, and having imbibed a
considerable portion of grog, he quitted the chair and proceeded
home. He, however, had scarcely entered the house when he
commenced the work of destruction by pulling down a Dutch clock,
smashing it to pieces, and threatening to knock out his mother's
brains with the weights. The poor woman was so much alarmed
at the violence exhibited by her son that she called in the aid of the
police, but before their arrival he destroyed nearly the whole of her
furniture, and made the most violent resistance, striking and kick.
ing the policeman in the most savage manner. At length he was
secured and lodged in the station house.

The defendant called the magistrate's attention to his disfigured
countenance, saying that it was done by the policeman, who, how.
ever, denied the assertion, declaring that he had received the in-
jury in an encounter he had on quitting the harmonic meeting.
The defendant's mother pleaded strongly in his behalf, and urged
that he was a good son to her until he joined the hatmonic meet.
ing, and that it led him into all kinds of dissipation.
Mr. Corrinonme said that such plaees as those, where the har-
monic meeting was held, frequently led young men into extrava.
gance and debauchery ; but the defendant might have committed
some desperate act while he was under the influence of liquor,
and that in order to prevent a repetition of such conduct, he
should now hold him to bail to keep the peace.
The defendant was locked up in default of procuring the re-
quired sureties.