sides were steep, almost perpendicular, while in marks, and earnestly desire their speedy others the slope was gentle from their base to the realization. summit. Here and there some rugged looking granite rocks reared their heads above the trees, and were particularly striking.

66

Looking to the hills, there all was nature pure and unadorned, just as it had come from the hands of the Creator; but when the eye rested on the cultivated plain on the rich mulberry plantations on the clear and beautiful canals studded with white sails, the contrast was equally striking, and told a tale of a teeming population, of wealth and industry.

"I remained for three days amongst these hills, and employed myself in examining their natural productions, and in making entomological collections. In some grassy glades in the wood, I frequently came upon little bands of natives engaged in making thrown silk. A long narrow frame-work of bamboo of considerable length

was constructed, and over this the threads were

laid in the state in which they came from the reel. At the end of the frame, collections of

these threads were attached to a number of round balls about the size of marbles. A rapid motion was communicated to the balls by a smart stroke between the palms of the hands. The workmen went along the line of balls with the quickness of lightning, striking one after the other, and keep ing the whole in motion at the same time, until the process of twisting the silk was completed." -FORTUNE, pp. 350, 358.

Our relations

"But putting on one side the case of the unfortunate lorcha Arrow,' about which our doctors differ,' there seems to be little doubt but our relations with the Cantonese were upon a most unsatis factory footing, and that sooner or later the good been disturbed. It was only a question of time, and understanding' existing between us would have it has been decided somewhat prematurely, perhaps, by this supposed insult to the English flag with the people and government of Canton, can and infraction of treaty rights. until we have a full and complete understanding never be considered on a satisfactory footing, with each other. They must be brought to look upon us as a nation, as highly civilized, and as ed we may have a disturbance at any time; our powerful as themselves. Until this is accomplishcommerce may be stopped, and what is of far more importance, the lives of our countrymen living in this remote region, may be placed in imminent danger.

at the commencement of this unfortunate dispute, "Whether we were right or wrong, therefore, it is now absolutely necessary for us to carry it through until our relations are placed upon a firm and satisfactory basis. It may seem fair and plausible for persons ignorant of the Chinese cha racter, to talk of justice and humanity,-fine-sounding words no doubt, but totally inapplicable to the present state of things.

In order, therefore, to be humane, in the strictest sense of the term, to prevent future war and bloodshed, to give the Cantonese a true estimate of our character, to render the lives and property of our countrymen secure, and to prevent those vexatious interruptions to our commerce, firm and determined hand. With a nation like we must carry out what we have begun with a the Chinese, particularly about Canton, this is true humanity and mercy.

In the concluding chapter of his book, Mr. Fortune discusses our recent collision with the Chinese, in the notorious affair of "The Arrow" lorcha. The calm and judicious statements of the character and occu. pations of those who employ lorchas of the "Arrow" class, should suggest to our Foreign Office the necessity of giving positive orders to our representatives in China to discontinue countenancing them. All who know "In conclusion, let us hope that the day is not China, and take an interest in the people far distant, when this large and important empire, with whom we now have such close mercanwith its three hundred millions of human beings, tile relations, protest, equally with Mr. For- shall not remain isolated from the rest of the world. The sooner the change takes place the tune, against permission being given to ves- better will it be for the Chinese, as well as for sels of this kind to sail under British colours. ourselves. Trade and commerce will increase to But, this view of the "Arrow" does not lead a degree of which the most sanguine can form but our author to the conclusion, that we should a very faint idea at the present time. The riches now withdraw from the whole affair, as if of the country will be largely developed, and we were entirely in the wrong. On the articles useful as food, in the arts, or as luxuries, contrary, his knowledge of the Chinese cha- at present unknown, will be brought into the racter, and his clear apprehension of the market. It cannot be true that a vast country like China, where the soil is rich and fertile, the merits of this case, lead him to urge the climate favourable, and the teeming population vigorous prosecution of the war, until we industrious and ingenious, can produce only two obtain a settlement perfectly satisfactory to or three articles of importance, such as silk and Europeans. All who look hopefully on China, as a field of missionary operation, must long for the time when the way to the homes of the three hundred and sixty millions of its inhabitants shall be opened up, greater value will be conferred upon the Chinese, "But when this is accomplished, a boon of and, as they remember their moral and spi- than anything connected with the extension of ritual degradation, they will cordially sym- their commerce. The Christian missionary will pathise with Mr. Fortune's concluding re- be able without fear of restriction, to proclaim

tea for exportation. There must be many more, and these will be brought to light when the country is fully and fairly opened to the nations of the west.

"Objects such as these, the placing of our relations on a firm and satisfactory basis, the prevention of unequal wars where much blood is necessarily shed, the extension of trade and commerce, and the free and unrestricted dissemination of the Gospel of Christ,--are worthy of the consideration of the highest statesmen and greatest philanthropists of our time."-FORTUNE, pp. 430, 439.

the 'glad tidings of great joy' to millions of the | from premature removals in opposition to human race, who have never yet heard the joyful medical advice. They have shown conclusound. sively that detention or custody, not cure or restoration, are too frequently the mainsprings of action in parochial boards, whose treatment of the insane is more apt to be influenced by motives of short-sighted economy, than by those of humanity; they have raised their voices indignantly against the practice of "farming" out the insane poor, without regard either to comfort or cure, and against the wholesale exodus of pauper patients from public asylums to private houses and workhouses. They have explained the danger of the desire and necessity for

ART. V.-1. Report by Her Majesty's Com-profit, on the part of the proprietors of pri

missioners appointed to inquire into the state of Lunatic Asylums in Scotland, and the existing Law in reference to Lunatics and Lunatic Asylums in that part of the United Kingdom. With an Appendix. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty, 1857. 2. A Bill for the Regulation of the Care and Treatment of Lunatics, and for the Provision, Maintenance, and Regulation of Lunatic Asylums, in Scotland. Prepared and brought in by the LORD-ADVOCATE and Sir GEORGE GREY. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 18th June, 1857.

vate houses influencing their treatment of pauper patients, to the manifest detriment of the mental and physical health of the latter; and they have not hesitated to proclaim, directly or indirectly, the insane poor of Scotland to be, in many cases, the unfortunate victims of a selfish, inhuman, parsimonious economy. They have frankly confessed the errors or defects in construction or management under which our public asylums labour, and have been at great pains to indicate how these may be best remedied or supplied, in the erection of future hospitals for the treatment of the insane. They have dwelt especially on the overcrowded state of all our public asylums, from a desire, on the part of FOR a long series of years have the medical their managers to meet, so far as possible, superintendents of our public asylums,-or, the urgent wants of the community; and as is the fashion now to designate them, they have recommended the erection both of chartered asylums-in their annual reports additions to existing asylums and of addiregarding these institutions, with singular tional asylums, so as to accommodate paability, fidelity, and fearlessness, exposed tients who are at present mis-treated, or the deficiencies, anomalies, and inconsisten- maltreated, in private homes, private asycies in the Lunacy Laws on the one hand, lums, poorhouses, and prisons, as well as to and the faults of commission and omission permit of a more satisfactory classification connected with the treatment of the insane of the insane, than at present. They have -and especially the pauper insane-of Scot- urged on the attention of the proper legal land, on the other. They have pointed out authorities, their difficulties in the treatment the extent and tendency of the prejudices of particular classes of cases, such as crimiwhich exist, especially in country and re- nal lunatics-improperly so called-dipsomote districts, regarding asylums and their maniacs, and voluntary patients, and they inmates: the degree to which restraint, phy- have offered suggestions for improvements sical force, and terrorism are suggested or in the law regarding them; and lastly, by dictated by mistaken kindness, ignorance, or availing themselves diligently of every adbrutality in the treatment of the insane: the vance in science and art to ameliorate the comparative curability of insanity in its ear- condition of those committed to their charge, lier stages and under appropriate treatment, they have established for the chartered asyand the importance of early treatment, both lums of Scotland, a cosmopolitan reputation, in regard to the chances of cure of the pa- a proud pre-eminence which has rendered tient and to the pocket of the rate-payer; them models-in regard especially to the the dangers of delay in confirming and ag- rational treatment of the insane-for the gravating the disease, and in constituting world to imitate. Let those who are inclinthe patient a permanent instead of a tempo-ed to doubt or deny the truth of the forerary burden on parochial boards: and the suicides, homicides, and other disasters both to the individual and to society, resulting

going assertions, peruse the annual reports of the Scotch asylums during the last ten or fifteen years, and especially those of Dum

fries, Edinburgh, and Glasgow; they will been hitherto sedulously concealed, or brings there find not only a mass of the most to light a new national grievance of many valuable information regarding the nature, years' growth. The Report in question will causes, and treatment of insanity, but they doubtless furnish powerful and valuable will speedily discover that the principal corroborative evidence; it will bring more evils and objections, as well as the sugges- fully under the notice of the legislature, evils tions with the exception of those regarding to which it had long shown a wonderful central boards-described or made by the apathy and indifference. Scotch Commissioners in Lunacy, in their The mode in which the evils connected recent Report to Parliament, have been long with the treatment of lunatics, especially in since anticipated. Year after year the med- cases beyond the reach of any present legal ical executive of our asylums has been per-interference, have been brought out by the severingly, unitedly, incessantly, endeavour- Scottish Commissioners, has at last fairly ing to force on the attention of the public roused Parliament out of this state of indifand of the legislature, the defects and ano- ference, and the Lord Advocate's bill, now malies of our lunacy laws, their improper or before Parliament, is the result. But as it imperfect administration, and the unsatisfac- is manifestly the intention of his Lordship tory mode of treatment of the insane, in to introduce some of the features of the certain respects, both within and without English lunacy laws into the management of the chartered asylums. But so far as the lunatics in Scotland, we would strongly introduction of remedial measures is con- recommend that the M.P.'s and journalists cerned, these representations and sugges- who have devoted so much attention to the tions-these "labours of love"-have hither- Scottish Lunacy Commission and its Report, to apparently gone for nothing. should study carefully the ten Annual ReThe Board of Supervision, during the ten ports of the English Lunacy Commissioners. years of its existence, in its annual reports, They will there find that the administrative has likewise repeatedly and distinctly point- agency of a Royal Commission, after ten ed out the difficulty of carrying into effect years hard work, has not been so successful the lunacy laws of Scotland applicable to the as is desirable, in remedying the evils of the poor, in consequence of defective asylum English lunacy laws and of the treatment of accommodation and other causes. Sir John the insane in England. We do not here enter M'Neill, the accomplished and energetic into the questions of why or how such a chairman of the Board just named, in his state of things comes to pass, but we call evidence before the Select Committee on attention to the fact, that there is abundant Miscellaneous Expenditure in 1848, in an- evidence in the pages of the English reports swer to a question put by Sir George Clerk to the Lord Chancellor-after the expendi[6506], states explicitly, "I do not contem-ture by the country of some L.160,000 for plate with satisfaction the placing of pauper administering the law-of the existence of lunatics in private madhouses at all. I have cases of neglect and abuse, nearly as glaring, a very serious objection to placing them in if not more so, than those now revealed in private madhouses with people who have no the Report of the Scotch Lunacy Commisinterest in taking proper charge of them, but sion. In their Seventh Annual Report whose interest it is to feed them as cheaply [p. 27], the English Commissioners state reand cure them as slowly as possible." When, garding Amroth Castle, Pembrokeshire, therefore, the Scotch, and especially the in the case of Vernon House, it was found English, newspapers re-echo the self-con- that the stables had been converted by whitedemnatory sentiments of a writer, who says washing and boarding, into wards for pauper in the Times, "I cannot but meanwhile patients, . that the single bedrooms were accept it as a great discredit to my native formed out of the old stalls for horses," and country, not merely that such evils existed that the male dormitories were in a loft over in it, but that their existence was overlooked the stables! The latest Report [Tenth, by her clergy, her officials, and her philan- 1856, p. 20], contains the following instructthropists," we believe they are guilty of a live paragraph, regarding Kingsdown House, glaring injustice to a people which has vo- Box:-"We are informed by Dr. Nash, luntarily done more for its insane, and to a that he pays about L.150 per annum for the country which possesses better public asy-good-will of the house, and that a valuation lums, in certain respects, than any people or of the patients admitted during the existence country in the world. It is quite a mistake of the lease, is to be made at its expiration, to suppose that the Report of the Scotch when a proportionate sum of money is to be Lunacy Commission contains novel disclo- paid to Dr. Nash for the cases so admitted. sures, reveals a state of affairs which has The amount is to be determined by arbitra

...

as

tion. . . . They [the patients] are by this ar- that the English influence and ideas unduly
rangement made a source of traffic and pro-
fit by two parties!"

predominate over the Scotch; that there is
an evident anxiety to make out a bad case—
It is not a little instructive that, a few a strong tendency to paint in the darkest
nights after the tragical effect in the House colours the gloomy side of the picture-an
of Commons, produced by the speech of ungenerous disposition to depreciate all ex-
Mr. Ellice in regard to the condition of the isting arrangements, especially as being
insane in Scotland-after the English mem- essentially Scotch in their character; and
bers had turned up the whites of their eyes that many of the statements are open
in devout horror at the revelations made, to the charge of inaccuracy, unfairness
and the London press had called upon the or partiality, and exaggeration! As pub-
English nation to blush for the inhumanity, lic reviewers we cannot, in equity, shut
the ignorance, the superstition, of poor, "re- our eyes and ears to the complaints which
ligious Scotland"-attention should have we have almost daily read or heard, since
been called in Parliament to the disgraceful the publication of the Report, in regard to
state of the insane inmates of the Maryle- its inaccuracies and exaggerations; the press,
bone Workhouse-an establishment under in every part of Scotland, teems with such
the very eye of all the enlightened model accusations, coming from asylums, public
boards of the southern metropolis! Last and private, and from all grades of officials
year, also, one of the Commissioners in Lu- connected with the administration of the
nacy [Times, March 6, 1856] found the Lunacy Laws, or with the treatment of the
wards for insane paupers in St. Pancras' insane. Some of these parties or persons
Workhouse, London, in a "lamentable state use the strongest language, imputing to the
of disorder and neglect," and reported that Commissioners all manner of unworthy mo-
previous suggestions of the Commissioners tives. From some quarters such accusa-
had been totally disregarded!
tions and imputations must be received with
Turn we now more particularly to the Re- caution, if not with suspicion; they look too
port before us. Were we desirous of criti-like recrimination from parties who smart
cising the manner in which the literary de- under the official scourge of the Commis-
partment of the Report has been executed-sioners. It does not surprise us that such
the perspicuity with which statistics have persons or parties should endeavour to defend
been arranged, so as to bear on the elucida- themselves as best they can against the
tion of interesting topics-or the opinions statements of the Commissioners; and fail-
in regard to the nature and treatment of ing in a valid defence, it is very natural they
insanity, and the proper constitution of hos- should attack the Commissioners with any
pitals for the insane, in the abstract, we weapons at their command. But these
might doubtless discover grounds of objec- charges of exaggeration, unfairness, and in-
tion or complaint. But we have no desire accuracy, are so common throughout Scot-
to be hypercritical; we shall rather look to land, and they originate, in many instances,
the spirit, tendency, or scope of the Report, in quarters so unexceptionable, that we must
than to the manner in which the details have be led to the conclusion that there is good
been worked out and thrown together. The ground for a certain proportion of them at
Commissioners have undoubtedly been at least. Since the publication of the Report,
immense pains to discharge their laborious it is understood that a correspondence has
duties faithfully and fully; and the result taken place between the Sheriffs and the
of their investigations, extending over a pe- Lord-Advocate, or Secretary of State; and
riod of upwards of two years, constitutes a that investigations have been made regard-
most valuable contribution to the literature, ing many of the special cases mentioned by
or history of the treatment of the insane in the Commissioners. Neither this corre-
Scotland. The bulkiness of the Report, spondence nor the results of these investi-
however, detracts materially from its use- gations have been given to the public. But,
fulness; and, from the mode in which the it has been stated, by those who are entitled
matter has been arranged, there is consider- to speak with authority, that, "up to this
able repetition and confusion. We are com- time, not one case had been found fully con-
pelled to admit further, that there appear to firmed."—[Perthshire Courier, July 9, 1857.]
be just grounds for opinions and objections It is most unfortunate that the Report was
which we have, on all hands, heard urged so long in its birth. We can only account
against it of the following nature:-That for this on the ground of the "tedious la-
there pervades the Report a decided bias bour" necessary safely to bring it forth. It
towards particular opinions, these opinions is apt to give a false impression of things
being such as are enunciated in the Reports as they are; for asylums, like many other
of the English Lunacy Commissioners, and institutions of the time, are progressive in

1857.4

Scottish Lunacy Commission.

their nature, and, in some of them, both the one hand, and physical deterioration and public and private, many and most import- moral and intellectual degradation, on the ant changes, in their constitution and govern- other. The influence of imperfect nutrition ment, have occurred during the last two in the production of insanity, is distinctly years. We could point to certain public enunciated by the Commissioners, who state, asylums which are complained of by the that "it never should be forgotten that imCommissioners as lacking a due supply of perfect nutrition is one of the most frequent books and objects to amuse and occupy the causes of insanity among the poor;" and patients, which now possess their libraries, that there is a "powerful affinity between museums, bazaars-their classes, lectures, poverty and mental disease," each being and concerts their picnics, walks, and "reciprocally productive of the other, and games-in addition to gardens, grounds, and alternately cause and effect." It follows, workshops, for ordinary or routine labor. that whatever tends to improve the physicWe could instance further, the old Montrose al, mental, and moral condition of the poorasylum, the parent of all the Scotch and to raise their social status, will, pro tanto, perhaps of all the British asylums, whose tend towards the diminution of insanity arrangements are not such as are now ap- among them. In this aspect, various evils proved of by architects and medical super- of our present social system call aloud for intendents, and to whose deficiencies its di- redress at the hands of our legislators. rectors have been long so fully alive, that Among these we may mention the bothy and they sometime ago voted a sum of L.30,000 truck systems, prostitution, intemperance, for the construction of a new and commodi- intermarriages between near blood-relations, ous asylum at a short distance from Mon- and between persons actually insane, or trose, on a salubrious and unexceptionable having a hereditary tendency to insanity. site, and which is rapidly progressing to- The condition of our agricultural labourers wards completion. Of this we feel assured, is most unsatisfactory, both in regard to that the condition of the insane in Scotland their housing and diet. The bothy system is far from being so bad as is represented is a disgrace to Scotland; and we are glad by the Commissioners, who might, consist- to see symptoms of amendment in the inently with truth, have expressed themselves stitution of an "Agricultural Labourers' in much more favourable and encouraging Dwellings Association," having its headterms, of the existing machinery for their comfort and cure.

but disgraceful case, which occurred in the quarters in Edinburgh. A most instructive neighbourhood of Montrose, has been going the round of the newspapers lately. A farm-servant deserted his master's service on the plea that the bothy was quite unfit for a man to live in. It was deponed by medical witnesses that the hovel in question was almost destitute of air and light, was damp and filthy, and altogether unfit for a human habitation. It is a serious truth,. that the cattle and dogs of farmers are better housed and attended to than their labourers. It is manifestly the interest of the farmer to possess well-housed robust labourers; but if selfish interests do not lead to the proper housing and feeding of agricultural labourers, for the sake of society the employer ought to be compelled, by legisIt is not enough for our legislators to lative enactment, to make more suitable frame measures for the custody and cure of provision for the preservation of their health. the insane. This is but a small part of their The cots or hovels of the peasantry, in many duty towards the community. The subject parts of Scotland, are nearly as unsuitable of the prevention of insanity is infinitely for human habitation as the bothies. In the more noble, as embracing a wider field of Carse of Gowrie, for instance, one of the action. Such a subject might well occupy richest agricultural districts in Scotland, the the attention of the Board of Health, or of cottars' houses are chiefly mud huts of the any other board or minister that may be most primitive description-huts which are charged with the care of public hygiene. It a disgrace alike to the district and to the has been abundantly proved, that an inti- country. Premature old age and paupermate relation subsists between insanity, on ism are among the most common results of