THE EARL OF MILLTOWNsaid, that it might be in the recollection of their Lordships that early last Session he had submitted a Resolution to the House to the effect that the present state of the Lunacy Laws was most unsatisfactory, and constituted a standing danger to the liberty of the subject. In using that expression he did not think that he had one whit overstated the case as far as the general opinion of the public upon this question was concerned. He had on that occasion read several extracts from the evidence which had been given before the two Select Committees of the House of Commons which had sat to consider the subject. A most interesting debate had ensued, in the course of which the noble Lord the Lord Chief Justice of England had expressed a very strong opinion adverse to the existing 1773 state of the Lunacy Laws, and that opinion was concurred in by the noble Marquess the Prime Minister. The noble and learned Earl opposite, who was then upon the Woolsack, in a speech of considerable importance, promised to bring in a Bill in the ensuing Session to amend the existing law, the evils of which he fully admitted. The noble and learned Earl had most loyally and amply fulfilled his promise, and brought in in the early part of the present Session a most valuable and exhaustive measure which was received with admiration by all, which if it had become law would have done much towards settling this important question, and which would have removed in a great degree the fears with regard to this question which, no doubt, existed in the public mind. The noble and learned Earl had been extremely anxious to carry that Bill; but it had, unfortunately, become a dropped Order. He, therefore, now wished to ask Her Majesty's Government whether they proposed in the next Session of Parliament to introduce a Bill for the amendment of the Lunacy Laws? Should the reply of the Government be in the affirmative, he had no doubt, knowing, as he did, the views which the noble Marquess the Prime Minister entertained upon the question, that they might see their way to going a little further than the noble and learned Earl opposite had done, and to turn all these private lunatic asylums into public institutions, so as to get rid of the odious system of private lunatic asylums altogether. As long as any body of men made large incomes by keeping their fellow-creatures incarcerated, the public could not, and ought not, to be content. He earnestly trusted that such a measure would be introduced as would sweep this evil system away altogether.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (Lord HALSBURY)said, he wished to express his concurrence in many of the views which the noble Earl had expressed, because in a long experience in the Courts of Law he had seen many evil results from the present state of the Lunacy Laws. All he could say in reply to the Question of the noble Earl was that it was the intention of Her Majesty's Government to introduce a Bill on the subject in the next Session of Parliament.