QUESTION. (Hansard, 3 July 1857)

§ SIR GEORGE GREY

said, several months ago he received a complaint of the treatment to which Thomas Tilley had been subjected, not in the Beverley Retreat, alluded to by the hon. Member for West Surrey, but in the Gate Helmsley Lunatic Asylum, near York, which he referred forthwith, according to the usual practice, to the Commissioners in lunacy for the purpose of investigation. Two of the Commissioners were immediately deputed to make a full inquiry into the case, and they reported the result to the Board. The Board sent him extracts from that Report; but a copy of the entire Report with Minutes of the evidence was sent to the committee of visitors of the asylum. The extracts received by him fully confirmed the statements as to the use, in the case of this patient, of means of restraint and other treatment which the Commissioners strongly condemned; but it did not appear, however, that the confinement 882 had been in a dark room, or had lasted so long as seven weeks. The iron jacket, too, did not belong to the asylum, but had been brought to it with a patient from York. It also appeared that the conduct of the patient Tilley was of the most violent description, and that he had escaped no less than six times, and while at large had committed acts of the greatest violence. The Commissioners also stated other extenuating circumstances, speaking favourably of the general management of the asylum, though they passed a severe censure upon the conduct adopted with regard to this patient. He was informed that the Commissioners had since again visited the asylum, and satisfied themselves that due care was now taken against the recurrence of any similar practices; and he had no doubt the inquiry would produce very beneficial results.