BILL WITHDRAWN. (Hansard, 5 July 1877)

§ LORD O'HAGAN,
in moving that the Bill be now read the second time, said: 788 My Lords, the Bill which I have laid on the Table will, if it be approved by Parliament, have very important results for multitudes of our fellow-suffering countrymen, and your Lordships will bear with me while I state very briefly the motives which have led me to introduce it. So long ago as 1851 the Irish Census Commissioners addressed the Irish Government in these terms— We respectfully suggest to your Excellency the propriety of taking some steps towards the education and moral improvement of idiots and imbeciles—a subject which at present engages the attention of the philanthropic both in England and on the Continent, where several establishments for the purpose have been erected, and are supported by the State, and in which the susceptibility of this class to a certain amount of education has been demonstrated. Ten years passed, and the suggestion had produced no result—nothing whatever was done to educate or improve these miserable people. A new Census took place, and in 1861 the Commissioners again pressed upon the Executive the same continuing necessity in precisely the same words;—but unhappily with no better effect—to the present hour no Government has paid any attention to it, and in 1877 things remain exactly as they were in 1851. A generation has passed away—the great work of charity which was urged by the Commissioners has gone on successfully abroad; and many of your Lordships may have seen the admirable institutions which have long existed in Belgium and elsewhere, redeeming unhappy children from darkness and misery, and restoring them in numbers to comparative intelligence and capacity for the business of life. In England very much has been done, and is doing, for the same noble purpose. Many admirable institutions have been established for the benefit of these unfortunate persons, and a great and good work has been accomplished. Ireland has had almost no share in this happy progress—for the first Irish Poor Law had no reference to the care of imbeciles. The Act of 1843, which provided for the deaf and dumb and blind, did not apply to those whose case is certainly not less lamentable, who have less power of self-help or self-assertion, who have far less chance of developing such capabilities of culture or enjoyment as God may have left to them, and whose miseries, from the neglect, disgust, or ill-treat- 789 ment of those around them, are incomparably greater. This began to be felt in England, and the Act of 1862 enabled the Guardians of the Poor to send to certified schools not only the blind and deaf, but also "lame, deformed, or idiotic persons." That Act does not extend to Ireland, and its beneficent provisions are to this hour denied her. What powers were given by the Act of 1843 have been admirably utilised. Voluntary institutions, amply endowed by voluntary benevolence, have been aided by the State, and Europe does not contain any establishments more efficiently worked for the blind and the deaf and dumb. On the same principles our reformatories and industrial schools have been made fruitful of immense advantage; and there is no sort of reason why, by the same agencies, asylums for imbeciles should not have been created with the same great results. But those agencies have not been provided; and whilst in this regard the rest of the world has been moving on, Ireland has remained where she was a quarter of a century ago. Fortunately, the Inspectors of Lunatic Asylums in Ireland distinguish imbeciles from lunatics in their statistical returns—a practice which the Commissioners and lunatic asylums in England would do well to follow, and I am, therefore, enabled to state to your Lordships the actual number and respective positions at the end of 1874. On the 31st December in that year there were in Ireland 8,151 imbeciles and idiots, of whom 1,740 were in workhouses, 638 were in asylums, and 5,773 were at large and utterly uncared for. The beneficence of a good physician, Dr. Stewart, who has devoted the earnings of his life to the maintenance of an institution for idiots, provides more or less for 43, many of whom are supported in it by their relatives; but there remain nearly 6,000, some 71 per cent of the whole, whose education and moral improvement are as entirely disregarded as when the Commissioners made their appeal in 1851. Crowds of them are homeless wanderers, exposed to all extremities of want and suffering, miserable in themselves, and a nuisance to that society which too often treats them with contumely and insult. Is not this a reproach to our humanity and a scandal to our civilization? Only 10 per cent of lunatics are so neglected in Ireland— 790 perhaps, unhappily, because they are feared by their fellow-men, whilst the poor imbeciles may safely be despised and left to pine and perish, and the minority, who are received into the asylum and the workhouse, ought not to be there. The imbecile and the lunatic should never be associated. It has long been our opinion," say the English Commissioners in Lunacy in 1865, "as the result of extended experience and observation, that the association of idiot children with lunatics is very objectionable and injurious to them, and upon our visits to country asylums we have frequently suggested arrangements for their separate treatment and instruction. It is always to us a painful thing to see idiot children, whose mental faculties and physical powers and habits are capable of much development and improvement, wandering without object or special care about the wards of a lunatic asylum. The benefits to be derived even in idiot cases apparently hopeless from a distinctive system, and from persevering endeavours to develop the dormant powers, physical and intellectual, are now so fully established that any argument upon the subject would be superfluous. And the workhouse is for the imbecile, I need not say, a still worse abode than the asylum. It affords him no chance of training or development. It makes him the subject of ill-treatment and annoyance from those on whom his presence exerts a painful and demoralizing influence. In this state of things I offer to your Lordships a Bill which for the first time aims to carry out the suggestions of 1851 and 1861. It will secure for Ireland the advantage of English legislation, which has been so long enjoyed by the people of this country, and supply the machinery and the means for improving the condition of the thousands whose pitiable condition appeals to all our generous sympathies. I shall not argue that it is the right of those wretched people to be dealt with, as human beings, considerately and kindly, or that it is the duty of the Legislature to see that they are so dealt with. Until a recent period all who were afflicted with mental alienation or mental weakness suffered grievously from popular prejudice and ignorance — sometimes from gross neglect, sometimes from grosser cruelty; but better times have come, and humaner counsels have prevailed. We know that the lunatic's best possibility of cure is not from the dark cell or the iron chain, and that the imbecile is often capable of intellectual application, and of some, though limited 791 enjoyment. There is no longer a difference of opinion on these points—a large experience has made them plain and indisputable—the imbecile may be made industrious and happy. In the Grafton Street Institution and others to which I have referred, there are children who in other circumstances would have been thought incapable of thinking with regard to this life or the next, but who, by means of the care bestowed upon them in these institutions, have developed considerable intelligence, taken an interest in the industry in which they are employed, and are capable even of religious instruction. No one who has seen the children in the Royal Albert Asylum can have the smallest doubt that they are capable of becoming industrious and intelligent, and, above all, are capable of an enjoyment such as, but for an exercise of the charity I ask your Lordships to exercise, they never could have had in this world. But on these grounds only I do not base my appeal for those changes which will equalize English and Irish law and take away a great shame from Ireland. I shall say, in words which are not more felicitous and expressive than true in thought and generous in feeling— It is much, in an industrial point of view, to be able to turn idlers into workers, more especially when those idlers are not only themselves incapable of labour, but, by the necessity of being looked after, the keeping other persons from what might be useful and productive employment. But it is still more important, as I think, to assert, as we do by our care of these unfortunate persons, the principle that a human being is to be respected and valued as such, not for his capacity of productive labour, not merely for the sharpness of his wits, not because there is anything about him which is pleasant to see or which it is agreeable to have to do with; but simply because he is a member of the human race, born on English soil, and, therefore, in that double capacity has a claim upon us as a human being and an Englishman. My Lords, these are the weighty words of the noble Earl the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. He has done immense service to the cause of these imbeciles of England. On behalf of those of Ireland I press the same urgent claim, on the same high grounds which he has taken, and I am sure your Lordships will not regret it. You have already accepted unanimously an elaborate measure for the regulation of the practice in lunacy of the Irish Court of Chancery, which I had the good fortune 792 to carry through this House some years ago. It has worked admirably, and will be still more useful in the future for the protection of lunatics having property, great or small, over whom the Lord Chancellor has proper jurisdiction. The more numerous lunatics of a lower class are well taxed for in our direct asylums, which are liberally endowed and wisely managed, and if the Legislature will aid by its sanction and support the object of this Bill much good will be accomplished, and a great work of charity and mercy made complete.

LORD ORANMORE AND BROWNE
said, he would not have offered any opposition to the Bill, if he could see that it would be carried out in a proper and legitimate manner, as was done in England; but so far as he could understand the provisions of the Bill, its operation would differ from that of the Act for England. It did not seem to him that imbeciles would be cared for under the provisions of this Bill as they were here. He could not find any provision in the Bill for that close inspection and those minute returns which were required under the Act for England. He thought no paupers or other persons should be sent to any institution without strict inquiry. The Committee or Commission to which the noble and learned Lord referred recommended, as he understood, that these institutions should be made public institutions. Last year an Act was passed for the removal of harmless lunatics first of all to a poor-house, and he should have thought that Act applied to imbeciles, and that they could be sent to a properly certified house. The English Act gave a right of entrance to institutions of this sort to every guardian, overseer, and medical officer; but, so far as he could see, that was not provided for in this Bill. He thought this Bill would be a step towards doing away with public institutions, and after a little while sending the poor as well as the imbecile into private institutions which would not be at all under public supervision, as he thought they ought to be. He did not think the Bill could be amended in Committee without being completely taken to pieces, and, therefore, he moved that 793 the Bill be read a second time this day three months.

LORD INCHIQULN
said, he would support the Bill, and thought the noble and learned Lord opposite (Lord O'Hagan) was entitled to all praise for having brought this subject under their Lordships' attention. In a recent Report of the Charity Organization Society it was especially recommended that this class of imbeciles and idiots should not be placed in the same house nor be subject to the same control with the more dangerous class of lunatics; and it was evident that by mixing the different classes much injury might be done to the former. Much of the lunacy of Ireland was due to the adulteration of drink. He hoped that Her Majesty's Government, even if they could not see their way to supporting the Bill, would deem the subject worthy of investigation.

§ LORD STANLEY OF ALDEELEY
hoped their Lordships would not give their assent to the second reading of this Bill, He shared in the sympathy of his noble and learned Friend for the afflicted; but he thought that the 5,700 imbeciles now at large in Ireland were much happier in the pure air of Heaven than they would be if shut up, and that the noble and learned Lord had not made out his case; for he said that in Ireland a distinction was drawn between lunatics and imbeciles, and that they were not placed in contact, which was bad for them, whilst in England they were placed together; and so long as so many lunatics were at large in this country who were dangerous to the interests of England, the 5,700 imbeciles in Ireland, who were quite harmless, might be left at large. Though the imbeciles in Ireland were at large, they were not necessarily neglected, and this Bill would strike a blow at one of the best traits in the Irish character, for the poor in Ireland were remarkable for their kindness and good treatment of imbeciles. Moreover, their Lordships would remember that the Party which passed the Disestablishment of the Irish Church intended to apply the surplus of the Church funds to lunatic asylums; and it appeared to him that there might be a desire now 794 to swell the number of lunatics and afflicted in order to justify such an application of the surplus. But however that might be, he thought that if the country should decide upon such an application of the surplus, it would be better to wait till then, instead of raising more money for this purpose by taxation.

§ THE EARL OF COURTOWN
said, that though it might be as well that some such measure as this should be adopted by Parliament, it seemed to him that the Bill before their Lordships was open to several objections. He objected on the ground of the additional burdens it would cast upon the ratepayers, and doubted whether it was within the competence of their Lordships to entertain the taxation clauses. He objected also to the arbitrary power of arrest given to the police in respect of lunatics found.

THE DUKE OF EICHMOND AND GORDON
said, there could be no doubt that the subject which had been brought before the House by the noble and learned Lord was one of great importance; but there were two reasons why he thought it would be inexpedient to press the Bill at the present time. In the first place, the Government, fully alive to the magnitude and interest of the question, proposed to issue a Commission to inquire thoroughly into the whole matter; and, in the second place, even if that were not the case, he did not think it would be advisable to embark upon a measure of this kind at so advanced a period of the Session, more especially when it was remembered that there was a Committee of the other House sitting at the present moment upon the whole of the Lunacy Laws of the country.

§ LORD O'HAGAN
said, that after the assurance of the noble Duke he should not ask their Lordships to proceed further with his Bill.