§ MR. BUCHANANasked the Lord Advocate, Whether it is a fact that at the monthly meeting of the Abbey Parochial Board held last week, the chairman stated that the board had been requested to remove from the island of Arran its lunatic patients boarded there by the 1st of June, as the Duke of Hamilton would not allow them to remain on the island; whether the request came from a person in whose house one of the patients was lodged, but that the chairman considered it unwise in that person's interest to read his letter or disclose his name; whether the five lunatic patients boarded on the island had been 738 reported by the medical officer at the same meeting as in the best state of comfort, and living in clean and tidy houses; whether the board intends to transfer these patients elsewhere; and, if the facts are substantially as stated, what steps he proposes to take to prevent the Duke of Hamilton, by threats of eviction, from frustrating the administration of the Statute Law of the Realm?
THE LORD ADVOCATE (MR. J. B. BALFOUR)I believe the facts are, in substance, correctly set forth in the Question. The system of boarding out lunatics in the Island of Arran has been carried on by several parishes, and with successful results, and it is not surprising that the Abbey Parochial Board should regret being deprived of so good an outlet for their patients. On the other hand, it is not difficult to understand the objections which the Duke of Hamilton may have to the regular importation of lunatics into his property, and I do not contemplate taking any steps in the matter—indeed, I have no power to do so.