The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-19 00:00:00

Lord GRENVILLW SOMERSET'S Lunatic Asylums' Bi 1
is one of those measures which are always favourites
with the House of Commons. It is a remedy falling,
confessedly short of the evil to be removed. "In pro-
posing this measure," said the Noble Lord addressing
the House of Commons on Thursday night, "I do not
propose to do all that I could do, or that ought
to be done ; but I do think that what I propose
will be accompanied with very beneficial results,
and will lead to broader and more comprehensive
legislation on the subject." After such a state.
want, was it to be expected that the House could
refuse leave to bring in the Bill ? Assuredly not. True
Mr. WAKnEv, and Mr. ILtwEs demanded a more exten-
sive measure ; but the House, true to its character, de-
clined to entertain such a proposal. What would become
of jobbing in legislation—of the tinkering branch of the
noisy business of Parliament, if laws were made as com-
prehensive and as perfect as even the limited capacity
of some of their framers could make them ? " Any pot,
and kettles to mend," cries the perambulating renovator
of old saucepans ; " any more laws to tinker," shouts it.
chorus the stationary collective wisdom of three king-
doms. Now in proportion to the magnitude of the subject
of legislation is our vexation that it should be ap-
proached by legislators not prepared with com-
prehensive, and, so far as human
,judgment can devise
final measures. The bit-by-bit system of legislation
unsettles every thing, puts the country to constant ex-
pense, and effects very little real good. Now the ques-
tion of the management and government of lunatic
asylums is a •ery important one ; and one at the saint
time which more than any other calls for the application
of a general, rule. That most dreadful disease, mental
alienation, does not call for a different course of treat-
ment in a different district. So far, then, as the Legis-
lature assumes the guardianship of lunatic asylums its
supervision should be co-extensive with the United
Kingdom, and include every establishment, public and
private, in which lunatics are, or may hereafter be
confined.

There is one class of the community whose interests
in legislation are never overlooked by the House ol
Commons, and that is the lawyers. Every new Bill is
sure to provide some job for them. Lord G. So-
NERSET's Bill vests in lawyers the Commissionerships of
lunatic asylums, and appoints that patients previous to
admission shall be examined touching their sanity by
barristers. This is one of the strangest regulations
that we eve: heard of. :Medical men are surely as
competent judges of the presence of insanity as law-
yers, and should they make a blunder, their professional
character is at stake. But. what injury will a lawyer
sustain in his professional character, for mistaking a
wiser person than himself for a madman ? Do not
lawyers make such mistakes, with absolute impunity,
ahuost nightly in the House of Commons? And are we not
lawyer-ridden enough already without downing the poor
insane victims of law—for it is law which drives half in-
mates of such asylums mad, to be haunted with the constant
presence of its functionaries ? Should such a measure
be adopted, we should not be astonished to hear next of
a clause in some hospital bill. appointing lawyers to
practice the obstetric art in all our public
institutions.

But. as Lord ASHLEY well observed, there is no ne-
cessity for any professional opinion to decide the ques-
tion of insanity. Wherever it makes its appearance men
of ordinary capacity and common sense, never fail to
perceive it quite as soon as physicians or lawyers, and
very frequently sooner. F.r how many madmen has
the law not ruined, whose insanity, plain to all the
world, only became known to the lawyers when
they had spent their last shilling ? And what
physician ever pronounced a wealthy patient insane who
was ready to pay handsomely for his visits, nnless he re-
ceived a larger fee from the friends of the patient ? The
safest test of insanity would be made by inquest, sim-
plifying the process, so as to be invariably conducted on
the principal of a coroner's court. But the question
is one. which we can now only touch upon. We shall
take frequent opportunities of returning to it.

Thore is not a word of political news in the French
Journals. Having expended their rage against England
on the subject of the Slave Treaty, and said more than
in their cooler moments they call desire to have said
about our Indian reverses, and lauded to the very echo
Sir ROBERT PEEL'S plan of an income tax, because they
say, it shows that Great Britain is at the last gasp,
they now devote their editorial columns to the domestic
question of sugar duties. As this question does not
at all concern us, we shall spare ourselves the trouble of
any comment upon it.
The Aloniteur of the 17th has no official part.

The King and Queen of the Belgians are expected at the Tuil.
erica in the course of this week. The apartments which they will
occupy as already preparing for their reception. They will re.
main at Paris, as well as the Princes of Saxe Coburg, till after the
accouchement of the Duchess of Nemours.—Constitutionnei.

The Sentinelk.confirms the statement of another journal, that a
camp of 400,000 men is to be formed. It Ts said that it will be at
Chalons.sur-Maine, under the command of the Dukes of Orleans
and Nfmours, and that it will consist of four divisions of infantry,
four divisions of cavalry and artillery, engineers, *c, &c. We
have heard•only the names of the following Lieutenant-Generals:—
Messrs. Dejeau d'Andenarde, Oudinot, and Larviestine, for the
cavalry, one of the divisions of which will, it is supposed, be sta-
tioned at Laneville, and the others cantoned about Chalons, and in
the neighbouring towns where several regiments are already in
garrison.—Commerce.
- BOURSE-P _ ARM, THURSDAY, MARCH 17.

host Hlghest Lowest Last
Price Price. Price.. Price.
?Nub 5 per 117 60 ... 117 65 ... 117 CO ... 117 50
4per Cent?. 101 50 ... 101 50 ... 101 50 101 30
S per Cents. ' 80 70 80 70 ... 80 65 ... 80 65
Loan. 80 90 .4. 80 DO ... 80 9,1 .. 80 90
amk of trance 3373 75 ...3375 ...3372 SU
LaMtte Bank I,ooof. Shares IC2O —lO2O —lo'2o ...1C29
5,000 f. Shares 5045 ...5045 ...5045
.4015
!Celan 3. nt
1811
Belgian 5 per cents.
Dutch 2 $ percents.: 1840 /06% ••• 106% ... 106)
% er Ce nth
kliinish Active 25% ... 9514 ... ;64 ... 25% %
5% ... 5% ...
New Deferred
Neapolitan .............. ..... 106 25 /4;6 25 ... 106 23 ... 31;6 15
...... ...... 1855 i 103 w, ... 10534 10556
RAILW
Portugueees 2)% :. ... ,e 914 20!.,
Y .
Nt... Germain .. 8A 3H AREs
to ain 840 840
Versailles. R. B
351 50 ...
L.B 35., r,O ... 343 75 ... 348 7b
... 222 50 .. 220 ... 2'20
Rouen • ....... 525 5.2 23
Orleans . . ........ • 567 50 —. 567 50 ... 566 25 566 25
S seberg to Bale 245 ... 245 ... 243 75 ... 243 75

Tui INCOME TA X.—ln humble imitation of Dr. San-
grado, so well known to the readers
of "Gil
n
it may be remembered, prescribed "bleeding
i hot
ater-" for every complaint, the Tamworth (.Ztat tick has
rrescribed flu! Income Tax, which answers the ‘purpose.
oth of bleeding and hot water, inasmuch as it
pleiiti-
fu}li bleeds John Bull in the chest, and keeps his temper
in a constant state of hot water ! This inquisitorial and
oppressive impost is as remarkable for its boldness,
as the remedial Curn-law measure is for its timidity.
'The former " goes the whole hog" as a burden ; the
latter stops half-way as a relief. The one is a positive
nuisance ; the other, a negative good. The Income-
Tax will shortly overrun the country with a locust-cloud
of tax-gatherers; the Corn-law Bill will just keep us in
the same state in which it found us. And this is Tory
justice and common sense—to let loose against us a whole
any of tax-gatherers, by way of affording us the relief
which we have been expecting for six months ! But,
thank God, we have at least one ounce of sweets mixed