The Sun.
London, England, 1845-07-21 00:00:00

THE LUNACY LAWS.
A lecture on this important, but, unfortunately, much
slighted subject, was delivered on Thursday by Mr. Perceval, at
the British Coffee-house, Cockspur-street. Mr. Perceval
briefly referred to the laws which have been made from the year
1774 with regard to lunatic asylums, and the insufficient means
taken to prevent cruelty to the patients in such institutions.
These laws, like the Bill now before Parliament, are all mo-
delled upon the original plan of a Board of Metropolitan Com-
missioners. This plan had failed, and he adduced recent facts
which proved that no Board hal failed more signally than the
present one. Yet the same defective system was to bc per-
petuated by the new 8111. He also quoted several cases of ill
treatmentof patients in asylums, and of the confinement of
some peisons for sinister purposes. In. support of his assertions
he read a letter to the Lunatics' Friend Society, from a per-
son who had been employed as a keeper in a private mad-
house, from which we will make a few extracts :
" Gentlemen,--:-I beg to state that I have had many years ex-
perience with the insane, and have seen much cruelty prac-
tised by men called keepers.'
" I have seen a man strapped' down on a bed and beaten with a
chair, because he was not quiet,—l mean beaten with conti-
nued blows till wounds have been inflicted which he will carry
to his grave. I have also known a man knocked down by the
keeper when he has attempted to move when the keeper has
been reading the paper, but, I must say, for these acts, in both
instances, the keepers were discharged ; but it was by mere
chance it was found out.

" I also know a gentleman farmer who was put in an asylum
on the pretence of insanity, and, like all others, because he had
property, and he told me himself that if he had continued there,
the thoughts of the place and the confinement would have
driven him mad. His friends interfered, and he was got
out after a great deal of trouble. I mean by the word
friends,' his acquatntances, for those who ought to be his
friends were the persons who put him there. Gentlemen—
the conclusion I have come to, for many years, is, that there
is wanted a society for the protection of the supposed insane.
Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to subscribe my
mite to such an Institution. In fact, I.have often wished to
have an opportunity of suggesting the usefulness of such a
Society. " Gentlemen, I remain, &c.

" Rt IVE LY."
Mr. PaaCrVAL pointed out sevROBE Dw
eral reasons hy, he con-
tended, that the proposed Bill for the regulation of the care of
Lunatics, was insufficient for its purpose, and would not pre-
vent the repetition of the cruelties practised in mad-houses.
These abuses might be prevented, or at least mitigated, if
the matter were less in the hands of the medical men than at
present. There ought to be a clergyman appointed to visit
every private mad-house at least once in every week, with
power to visit as often as he pleased. Mr. Perceval gave
several reasons for this; not the least striking of which was,
that a large class of the really insane persons confined in
madhouses are mad from religion, either sinking into
a state of melancholy, or exhibiting their insanity in
fanaticism. The reasoning of a sensible clergyman might
its either ease restore the patient to reason. There was one
provision required in the new lunacy Bill which would cause
a great improvement ; it was a clause to the effect—that every
certificate of insanity made out Oy a medical man should state
the grounds nn which he believed the patient to be insane. Mr.
Pereeval concluded his address by calling the attention of the
audience to a petition which lay on the table for signature, and
which was to the following effect :-
5' To the HONOURABLE the COMMONS' of the UNITED
KINGDOM of GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND, in
PARLIAMENT ASSENIBLED.
" The humble Petition of the undersigned Inhabitants of the
City of Westminster (and other places)—
" Humbly showeth—That a Bill is now before your Honour-
able House, entituled, A Bill for the Regulation of the Care
and Treatment of Lunatics in England and Wales.'

"That your petitioners, whilst they freely admit that a spirit
of improved legislation pervades the Bill now before your
Honourable House, nevertheless, with great respect and defe-
rence, beg to assert there are many deficiencies therein, and
to which your petitioners are most desirous to call the atten-
tion of your Honourable House, but which the lateness of the
present session of Parliament prevents them doing, either with-
Justice to the important subject or to your Honourable House.
Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray, that this most im-
portant subject (including !mints in which the dignity of our
common nature as well as that of your Honourable House be-
come involved if legislation is not effective) may be altogether
po•tpuned until next se,sion of Parliament ; and
" Th rt a Committre of your honourable House may he ap-
pointed to inquire into past legislation and the present condition,
care, and treat rninsi of lunatics in England and Wales, whether
pith kmrs or othervitte.
" And your petitioners, as in duty-hound, will ever prey, &e."
Mr. Bailey and Ca;-twin Digby, R.N.; two gentlemen, who
hail been confined as lonaties, even after the soundness of their
minds bad been admitted by medical men, came forward afar
the lecture and detailed their cases, and complained heavly of
the root umelous and inefficient manner in which the Como-1k- '
sioners performed their duties, which was a matter of notoriety
to those who had been unhappily placed in Lunatic Asylums.

ADDRESS BY ROBERT OWEN,
ON LEAVING THE UNITED STATES FOR EU-
ROPE, JUNE 1, 1845.
(From the New York Herald.)
Americans.---After as absence of fi:teen years I have again
spent nine months in your States, and nearly four months of
that period in the city of Washington, during the last session
of Congress. I have seen in my travels through New England
and the middle States, and presume the same has occurred in
'the south :.nil west, a great increase to your cities, to your
poiallation, and in the extended cultivation of the soil. I have
a'so ascertained that your mntis to increase wealth and power,
for good or evil, are illimitable for many hundreds or thousand
of years, and you cou!d now beneficially absorb into your
Union the present population of Europe.
You have aho progressed in a most extraordinary manner in
new discoveries. its science, and in mechanical inventions, to
render manual labour of diminished value, and to open the path
to a new state of things, which will make labour of, little or no
commercial value, or unsaleable, for the rightful support of the
industrious.

THE INCOME-TAX. -
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,—As the income schedule returns are now again
in the course of circulation throughout the country, it
will not be out of time to offer complaint again.
That it is manifestly unjust to tax tradesmen, clerks,
and book-keepers, equally with the real property man
and the fundholder, no honest person will venture to
deny. Sir Robert, by way of excuse, took it upon him-
self to say there would be a " difficulty" in drawing a
line. Not the least could there be were he inclined to
act equitably. He might subject the real property and
the funded property holders to a duty upon 1501., and
the tradesman, clerk, and book-keeper, to 300/. ; or, if
that did not suit him, make a difference in the ratio of
duty as between the landholder, the fundholder, and
others.

Sir Robert knew his landholding majority would sup•
port him in his injustice, but he may not have them ai
his back another whole year. I think he will not,
the events which are forecasting their shadows ; but a,
any rate he must be still reminded of his incorncinflic.
tion.—l am, Sir, your obedient servant,
July 16, 1845.

A LOVER OF RIGHT.

ON THE IRISH GREAT WESTERN
RAILROAD FROM DUBLIN TO GALWAY.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Slll,—As you were kind enough to insert some letters
from me on the all absorbing question in the west of
Ireland, the railroad from Dublin to Galway, permit me,
through your columns, to congratulate my friends in Ire-
land arid the empire at large, at the triumphant manner
in which this great national undertaking has passed the
House of Commons—a measure fraught with untold ad-
vantages to the trade, commerce, and industry of this
country, and sure to bring employment to thousands
upon thousands of the half-employed peasantry of Ire-
land, " willing to labour but no man to hire them."
Here, then, is a fund of employment for years to
come ; for this railroad across Ireland will lead to
numerous branches ; in fact, Athlone, on the river
Shannon, at the centre of Ireland, will be the point at
which all the railroad, north, east, south, and west will
gain their traffic. The magnificent harbours on the west
and south-west coast, which surround Ireland, will be
approached by railroad in a few hours from the metro-
polis (Dtiblin), which, as well as Belfast, Drogheda,
Wicklow, Wexford, and Waterford will be the points,
as ports opposite England, Scotland, and Wales, from
whence railroads shall convey to Cork, Galway, and
Sligo. By the Galway Railroad (when steam-vessels,
now building for the purpose, shall be finished) the
metropolis (London) can be brought within eight days
of New York, certainly within ten days ; and the inha-
bitants of the north of Europe will find their way to
America and the southern world through helmet along
this very line. Surely the House of Lord's will give
their sanction also,_ and thereby afford our gracious
Queen the happiness to put, , within one short month,
her seal to a work, looked forward to, by so large a por-
tion of her devoted and loyal subjects in Ireland, as es-
sential to their happiness.
The Grand Canal, a privatecompany, alone now oppose
this great measure. Let that company adopt an improved
system of tractage on their Canal, so as to reduce their
charge to one penny a ton per mile, which they can do,
and have a profit, and they need not apprehend competi-
tion in the legitimate carrying trade for this Canal. At
all events opposition from interested motives must not
be suffered to bar the passing of a measure that has
been prepared for the identification of the good of Eng-
land and Ireland.
I attended the House of Commons' Committee on the
two Bilk, now so happily gone to the Upper House—
one the Dublin by Muilingar to Longford, the othor
the railway I have just mentioned ; and I am happy to
tell my countrymen that five fairer specimens of honest
independent gentlemen, anxious to hear the truth and
come to a good decision, could not be found, and it must
have struck those who like me attended th,, Cotn-
mittee for fourteen days, that every point that
m ide favourable to Ireland, seemed
most highly to gratify them, and I would not hesitate
to leave in such hands the settlement of national affairs
the highest importance. Ireland must not forget the
exertion of the talented member for Roscommon, who,
with his party, chalked out this excellent line, and suc-
ceeds d hi passing it in the House of Commons against
the united opposition of the Grand Canal Company.
Since 1830 I have never ceased to advocate this measure,
and others like it, at a great sacrifice of both time and
money. I have now every prospect of meeting the only
r,mard, namely, in the perfecting a work calculated to
promote peace, uni•in, concord, industry, and commerce.
in my native land, which, though hitherto oppresse,
has now a fair prospect of an advent of great prosperit.
—I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
THOMAS BERMINGIIA

THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL
SOCIETY OF ENGLAND.
SUREWSBURY, Jot," 18.—Yesterday being the first day 01
the cattle show, the town was crowded from an early hour.