The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-17 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

A FEW OBSERVATIONS on, and a few Facts
illustrative of, the Evils attending the System of
DETAINING SINGLE LUNATICS in PRI-
VATE D IVELLEV GS, without Reponsible Su-
pervision.
Dr. Barry, of Richmond, the author of this
pamphlet, takes, as his text, the following passage
from the speech delivered by Sir James Graham, in
the House of Commons, on the 23d of July, last :
" Notwithstanding the detention of single lunatics
by their friends in private dwellings is open to abuse,
yet it does not appear that such prevails."—Sir James
Graham's Speech in the House of Commons, July 23, 1844.
And he asserts that the system is not only open to
abuse, hut that abuses of the most horrible cha-
racter do actually prevail. Public asylums, and pri-
vate madhouses—that is, houses containing a plurality
of insane patients, are under the surveillance of the
commissioners of lunacy, but single lunatics, or
alleged lunatics, detained in private dwellings, are
under no surveillance whatever, and there is but
too much reason to fear, that not only are the ac-
tually insane under such circumstances wilfully
treated in a manner calculated to aggravate, and not
to cure their malady, but that many sane persons are
subjected to a system of slow torture, sufficient to
drive them mad. According to Dr. Barry's account,
atrocities the most inhuman, and immoralities the
most atrocious, are perpetrated in these private
dwellings for single lunatics. The doctor is evi-
dently an enthusiast, and may possibly have been in
some instances misled into the making of exag-
gerated statements, but the very fact that under the
existing system the perpetration of the atrocities
which he has denounced is possible, ought to lead to
its immediate reform ; and if he can substantiate
one-half of what he alleges, Parliament will incur
a heavy responsibility if it suffers the present session
to end, without passing, some legislative enactment
for the remedy of so crying an evil.

7!JE FRENCH LANGUAGE ACQUIRED IN
FOUR MONTHS; an Extirely Original System of
Teaching the Language. By M. ?QIRIOT DE
BEAUVOISLIV. .

M. Mariot de Bealivoisin is scarcely correct in
calling his an entirely original system of teaching
language. It is an improvement upon the system of
Hamilton, as the system of Hamilton is an improve-
ment upon that uf Locke; but to John Locke is due
the credit of having suggested the system of teaching
languages by means of literal translations; and to
J)hn Clarke, author of " The Introduction to the
Making of I.:atin," that of having practically carried

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it out. Clarke laboured for years in the cause of
teaching by means of literal translation ; and although
the labourer himself is forgotten, his labours are n-iw
producing their fruit. John Clarke lived a century
too soon. With regard to the work now before us,
we have already stated that it is an improvement
upon the system of Hamilton. There is an inter-
linear translation, but the translation is printed
separately on a transparent leaf, through the
interstices between the lines of which the
French is seen when the leaf is turned down--
when the leaf is turned over the French alone
appears. This transparent leaf is certainly calculated
to facilitate the progress of the pupil. Then after
each reading lesson come questions for examination,
and also a parsing lesson, and these are so arranged
that at the end of the course the pupil finds that he
has not only acquired an immense number of words,
but that he has also obtained a perfect knowledge of
French grammar. M. Mariot de Beauvoisin's system
of teaching the genders of nouns is the most simple
and, at the same time, the most complete that has
ever been attempted. It is a carrying out of the
Hamiltonian principle in a perfectly novel manner,
and consists in invariably prefixing the article to the
noun. This is the only method in which the gender
of French nouns can be learned with anything like
accuracy, for, as. M. de Beauvoisin justly observes—
" There is no rule by which a foreigner can determine
whether a substantive is masculine or feminine."

THE ABBOTSFORD EDITION OF THE

WA VERL Y NOVELS. Vol. 7.
The present volume of this magnificent edition of
the works of the " Aricsto of the North," contains
" The Fortunes of Nigel," and " Peveril of the Peak."
Both novels are profusely illustrated in a similar
superb style to the former volumes. The work,
when completed, will be a perfect triumph of British
art. The typography, too, is beautiful.