Commons Sitting of 10 March 1819

MAD-HOUSES REGULATION BILL.
Mr. Wynnrose to move for leave to bring in a bill for the regulation of Mad-houses, and observed, that as this subject had been already several times before the House, he did not feel it necessary long to trespass upon its attention. It would be recollected, that some years ago, the report of a committee had been laid before the House, detailing such scenes of misery and wretchedness in mad-houses, as had perhaps never been paralleled; and after such an expose, it was the obvious duty of the House to follow up the report by the adoption of some legislative measure, calculated to put an end to the evils complained of. There was, however, no fault to be found with the conduct of that House; for it had done its duty, by repeatedly sending up a bill to the other House of parliament, which that House thought proper to reject. He believed it was not irregular to advert to the proceedings of the other House in a former parliament; and he could not forbear from remarking, that no reason was at any time publicly stated in that House for rejecting the bills alluded to. He was indeed at a loss to divine the grounds upon which such rejections took place; and as none were urged, it was the duty of the House to persist in its purpose of legislating, with a view to correct the enormous evils, which, upon full inquiry before a committee, were demonstrated to exist. Many of the evils described in the report of that committee had been removed or abated; but, too many of those evils still existed. The regulations desired were not generally adopted; and a proper system of regimen and control was not yet established. No effectual provisions, indeed, with a view to that establishment, had yet been enacted; for it appeared, that although no mad-houses could be legally opened, without a license from the college of physicians, that body was not in possession of funds to prosecute such as might violate the law. Under these circumstances, he proposed by the bill which he meant to bring in, that a general board of inspection for mad-houses should be appointed, and that the members of that board should be at liberty to visit such houses throughout the country at different and uncertain times, so as to ascertain the manner in which they were conducted, and to report any existing evil to the board, which should be invested with powers to enforce their correction. There was a provision in the existing law, that no lunatic should

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be taken into any mad-house, without a statement of the name of such lunatic, with that of the person by whom he was sent in, and the degree of relationship of such person to the lunatic, together with a medical certificate as to the nature of his disease. Now, he understood that this provision was not unfrequently evaded by a misstatement of the name of the lunatic; and it was one of the objects of his proposed bill to impose a penalty upon all such wilful misstatements. He had been told, that one of the objections to the former bills upon this subject in the other House was, the proposition to have a board of inspection appointed in each county, at the general quarter sessions. Upon what valid ground this objection was entertained, he could not well conceive; but he was not unwilling to have the power of making such appointments vested elsewhere. Another provision in the former bills, which he heard was particularly objected to in the other House, was this, that any house, having only a a single lunatic, should be bound to make a return of the name and situation of such lunatic to the office of the secretary of state for the home department, to be there registered; and that such register should be open to inspection only by the secretary of state's permission, upon special application made to him for that purpose. He was ready to admit, that the feeling of delicacy and tenderness for private families, upon which this objection rested, was entitled to due consideration. But Set it be recollected, that a person might be so confined, without any medical certificate, and that great abuses might arise out of the toleration of such a system. To guard, then, against such abuses, he thought it indispensably necessary that some plan should be adopted for registering the names of all persons so confined. For in case it should be required, by any relation of any such person, to ascertain his actual condition, how could he proceed to do so? If not enabled to know the place of his confinement, to whom was the Court of Chancery to address a Habeas Corpus to bring up any lunatic, or alleged lunatic, for examination? He proposed, then, that a register should be established under the control of the secretary of state, through whose permission alone such register should be inspected. This arrangement was the more necessary, as he understood that many instances had occurred in which persons
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so confined had been kept under restraint long after their disease had been removed. But the unnecessary continuation of such restraint was not uncommon in the several private mad-houses. Such instances of abuse had indeed been found to occur even in the mad-house under the direction of Mr. Bakewell, of Staffordshire, which was confessedly one of the best regulated houses in England. The hon. gentleman concluded with moving for leave to bring in a bill for repealing the acts of the 14th and 55th of the king with respect to madhouses; and for making other provisions for the better regulation of such houses.—
Leave was accordingly given.

EXCHEQUER BALANCES.
On the motion, that the committee of supply be deferred till Friday,
Mr. Grenfellsaid, that the observations made on a former evening by the chancellor of the exchequer on the subject of the Bank balances, and his statements of what they were likely to produce to the public, had created strong impressions in and out of doors, and that those impressions had led to the greatest errors and delusions. He would appeal to the House, whether the conclusion which might have been fairly drawn from what the right hon. gentleman had said on the 2nd of February, and on last Friday, was not that 6,000,000 l. would be available to the public services in the way he had then described? This was the impression which had been made upon him. This was the conclusion he had drawn; and he fondly imagined that he should have no more occasion to impress the propriety of such a measure upon the House. In this opinion he had continued down to a late period on Monday; and he called upon every member present, who had heard the right hon. gentleman, to say, whether such was not the opinion which each of them had formed? But what was the fact? It was this, and he would stake his credit upon the truth of it; that instead of 6,000,000 l. being applicable to the service of the public, in the way which had been stated, the House would find, that the-public would not have the benefit of half that sum. He would state farther, that of the heads of balances, which amounted to 56, the public would only derive benefit from one. From all the others they were to be excluded, and the whole of what was intended to apply to their service was only a deposit of exchequer bills. He would

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to-morrow move for certain papers which would more clearly explain this matter to the House.
Mr. Lushingtonregretted that the hon. member had not delayed his remarks until the chancellor of the exchequer was in his place. For his own part, he had no hesitation in saying, that the 6,000,000 l. would be applicable to the service of the public, and that the result would prove the correctness of his right hon. friend's calculation.
Mr. Tierneyremarked, that his hon. friend had said no more than what would turn out to be the fact, namely, that after all the boasting about the 6,000,000 l. there would not be a sum of more than 3,000,000 l., or from that to 4,000,000 l., so applicable.
Mr. Maberlyconceived that the whole subject would be found to have been misstated or mistaken, as far as the advantages to be derived by the public were concerned. The fact was, that of these 6,000,000 l., there would be 3,300,000 l. to pay the arrear of the consolidated fund; and that, in order to pay the Bank the sum due to them, it would be necessary, in addition to the remaining sum, to take 300,000 l. from the ways and means of the year.
Mr. Huskissonsaid, that it might no doubt be necessary to apply a part of the ways and means of the year to the liquidation of the 3,000,000 l; due to the Bank. It should be recollected, however, that as it was determined to discharge that debt, it would have been necessary to take the whole sum out of these ways and means, if it were not for his right hon. friend's proposed application of the public balances alluded to. But the fact was, that this application itself constituted a part of the ways and means for the year.

MUTINY BILL.
On the second reading of this bill,
Sir Isaac Coffinexpressed a desire to assimilate the proceedings in courts-martial in the array to those in courts-martial in the navy. In the latter service the sentence was declared immediately, and in open court; in the former it was referred to the inspection and consideration of the commander-in-chief, and was not in some cases declared till six months after the sitting of the court-martial. He thought it neither consistent with law or justice that such a practice should be allowed to continue. No man entertained a higher
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opinion of the present commander-in-chief than he did; and he did not wish to make the slightest insinuation against that exalted individual; but still he thought the present practice was most faulty, and such as ought to be instantly amended.
Lord Palmerstonsaid, that when the proper time arrived, he trusted he could adduce satisfactory reasons for the existence of the present practice in military courts martial.