The Sun. — 1858-10-25 (London, England)

PRIVATE LUNATIC ASYLUMS.—At the Essex quarter sessions this week an application was made by Mrs. Allen, the widow of Dr. Allen, for a renewal of the licence of a private asylum, for many years carried on at Highbeach, near ;Epping. The Rev. Mr. Lewis called the attention of the Court to the report of the Lunacy Commissioners, made three or four years ago, in which they said :—" We found four female patients fastened in one of the upper rooms, without a fire, and with the window open; they were poorly clad, and their sleeping accommodation very deficient. The small room occupied by one of these patients was very offensive, and the blankets were wet with urine. These four patients sleep onstretchers with only blankets under them, and another patient at Leopard's-hill (a man) sleeps on a stretcher, having not even a blanket beneath him. There is altogether a great deficiency of general comfort in 'the establishment." -Mrs. Allen undertook at the time to remedy these things, but the rev. gentleman assured the Court the asylum was now in the same condition. It appeared that some of the patients paid £2OO a-year, but Mr. Davis and Mr. Gurney Fry, two magistrates appointed to visit the house, said they found the sleeping accommodation inadequate for the 16 patients they found there, and the ventilation bad. They heard no complaints of unkindness, but the patients did not look so well as they ought to do, and there was an air of poverty about the place. In consequence of this the Court declined to renew the license, and at the expiration of the old one the asylum will be closed. The Tiden of Stockholm relates another case of religious persecution in that country :—" A persoon named Hejdenberg, of Elftdalh, thought fit in 1856 to abjure Lutheranism, and to adopt the Baptist form of worship ; and he taught his new creed. For the abjuration and the teaching he was brought to trial before the Royal Court of the town. •As however it appeared that he had not received from the clergy the warnings' which are required to be given to abjurers, he was acquitted on the first charge ; but as, with respect to the second, it was shown that he had on a Sunday held a meeting and had expounded the Scriptures, he was declared guilty of violating the law of conventicles, and of profaning the Sabbath ;' he was accordingly fined 69 rixdollars. Ho appealed to the Supreme Court at Stockholm, but the condemnation was confirmed. He very recently presented a petition to the King for pardon, but it has just been rejected." An extraordinary suicide was committed three days ago at Oullens, a village near Lyons. A grocer of that place on Tuesday having been teased by his cat killed it, and his wife, who esteemed the animal greatly, was very angay and reproached him. At supper the woman again complained of his having killed the cat, and she persisted in talking about it, in spite of his repeated requests to let the matter drop. At length he flew into passion, and a violent altercation ensued. The woman said something which wounded him deeply, and seizing a large knife he cried, " If you do not instantly demand pardon I will kill you !" She refused, and with a violent blow in the face he felled her to the ground. Seeing that blood flowed and that she remained senseless he raised her and placed her in a chair. At this moment a police officer who had heard the altercation entered and asked, " What is the matter ?" " Something serious !" answered the grocer, and so saying he plunged the knife into his heart and fell dead. About two years ago he was bitten by a mad dog, but the bite was cured.