Star.
London, England, 1828-04-30 00:00:00

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button, containing about five bunked persons, and
receiving the lunatics, from four or five parishes in
Middlesex, and from the parishes in the metropolis.
It was admitted by the owner that the place was too
much crowded; it was proved that the medical assis-
tance was inadequate, and it was the practice, which
he thought most cruel and unjustifiable, to confine all
the worst patients—those called crib patients—from
Saturday to Monday. This was done regularly and
periodically. He could conceive that such persons
might occasionally require confinement,' but their
paroxysms seldom or never occurred periodically,
and therefore to confine them forty-eight hours pe-
riodically was quite unnecessary. Fourteen or fifteen
persons were so confined throughout the year, which
was done, he believed, for the convenience of the
keepers, not for the benefit of the patients. It might be
said that he had taken the exceptions to the general
state of Asylums for his rule, but he should argue from
this impunity that the law was defective. But he found,
in the evidence taken before the Committee, that Dr.
Frampton, a medical Gentleman of considerable repu-
tation, who had visited forty•eight of these Asylums,
stated, that Mr. Warburton's establishments were " above
par." Tkey were at least, therefore, on a level with the
others; and if they were not, their existence in the state
described was sufficient to justify a new law. Another
object proposed by the law was to place the controuling
power over these Asylums in different hands. The
visitors at present were the Royal College of Physicians
—a body of men for whom he had the highest respect,
and who seemed to deserve the confidence of the public ;
for the improved value of lives, of which something had
of late been said, was piobably owing to their great ad-
vances in science. But though the responsibility was
placed in their hands, they had no power. They could not
refuse to grant a license to any person applying for one ;
and after one bad been granted, whatever they might
find reprehensible, they had no power to revoke it.—
Tois was a great anomaly. The only power they had,
was to inscribe the defects they had noticed on a
tablet, and hang it up in their canonical chamber.—
Publicity, it was thought, would correct the evils; and
so it might in some cases; but the publicity of the
Council•chamber of the College of Physicians was not
much; and this part of the enactment had been so in-
effectual, that for many years no tablet had been hung
up. The present Bill was to last three years, and the
power now held by the Royal College of Physicians
was to be placed in the hands of fifteen Commissioners,
five of whom were to be medical men; the whole to be
appointed by the Secretary of State for the Home De-
partment. They were to have the power not only of
refusing a licence, if they thought proper, but also of
revoking one when granted, if they saw sufficient rea-
son. Under the old law, a druggist, or a druggist's
apprentice, might grant certificates of insanity, and some
of the certificates granted by such persons, to be found
in the Repot t of the Committee which sat in 181.5, were,
for their absurdity and orthography, worthy of a place
in Humphry Clinker. The power to grant such certi •
ficates was by this Bill confined to physicians, surgeons,
and apothecaries. He would not trouble their Lord.
ships by adverting further to the new enactments: It
was his wish to have this Bill also examined before a
Committee up stairs, and he hoped that such a law
would be passed as might place the unhappy persons of
whom he was speaking in a state of security, and under
proper protection, without injuring the interests of the
very respectable persons who were now engaged in ,
keeping such asylums. His Lordship concluded by
moving the second reading of the Bill.
. Lord CALTHORP felt great satisfaction in support-
mg the Bill. He had been an eye witness to many of
the abuses described by the Noble Earl. He hoped that
the present Bill would afford security to the unhappy
class of persons whose calamity their Lordships must all
so sincerely and deeply deplore. He was sure that the
rights of those who were interested in this Bill would
meet with full consideration in the Conanittee; and he
thought that they could not do more. For himself, so
far from wishing that any thing should occur in the
Committee to prevent the progress of the Bill, he trusted
that it would come out of that Committee still more
qualified to give effect to the object that the promoters
of the measure had in view.
The Marquis of SALISBURY complained that too
much power was placed in the hands of the magistrate,
as he did not think it right that they should be privi-
leged to send persons to lunatic asylums who, in their
lucid intervals, would suffer from that circumstance.
Two cases in illustration of this had come within his
own knowledge, is one of which a man had been kept
thirty years; he was therefore desirous that some altera-
tion should take place in the clause.
The Earl of MALMESBURY said, that he would
not go into details at present, but he had no doubt that
the suggestion of the Noble Marquis would be taken
into consideration in the Committee up stairs.
Petitions on this subject was then ordered to be referred to the
Committee.

The Order of the Day for the exammination of the witnesses on
the Peaty' Disfranchisement Bill was then read.
The following witnesses, Charles Frederick Ady, Samuel Trio.
trey, John Goodman, Mary Beacre, Thomas Pitts, William Rey.
acids, John Came, and James Pawley, were then examined at the
bar; after which their Lordships adjourned at Twatva &Owns.
LORD HOLLAND'S PROTEST.

The following is Lord HOLLAND'S Protest to the
Amendment introduced into the " Declaration" in the
Bill for the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Act;
the Amendment being " upon the true faith of a
Christian:"
" Diamintlent—Beesuse the introduction of the words' upon the
true Leith of • Christian' implies an opinion In which I cannot con.
seiontiondy concur—namely, that a particular faith in matters of
edition is necessary to the proper discharge of duties purely political
or temporal.
• Secondly--Because it impears from two Acts, the one passed
in the 10th George I. chap. iv. and the other in the nth year of
George 11, chap. oil. that the words ' upon the true faith of a
Christian' occurring in the oath of Abjuration have been dispensed
with in cases which were found not to be within the spirit and scope
al tits original law, and it seems to me inexpedient to introduce
unnecessarily into a declaration of this nature a form of words
which experience has shown may produce effects Rot contemplated
by than who imposed it.
(Signed) " V A 3SAIJ, ROLLAND."
The following Peers afterwards signed it
SU F Fl EL% LEINSTER,
ESSEX, DURHAM,
MENDIP, CLIFTON.
DACILE,

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