Cursory Remarks on a Bill Now in the House of Peers for Regulating of Mad Houses, with Observations on the Defects of the Present System

police that more deserves the attention of the Legislature, than the one which this Bill professes to embrace. In its enactments all are interested, and its provisions come home to the bosoms of every class, and almost of every individual in the community, seeing the visitations of insanity are indiscriminate and unsparing, and its victims, of whatever rank, are reduced to one common level of pitiable, and very often hopeless, degradation. We therefore cannot but honour that benevolent and paternal spirit, in which Parliament instituted an inquiry into the state of Mad Houses throughout the kingdom, as emanating from a sincere desire to satisfy the wishes of the most respectable part of the community, and to improve the moral and physical condition of the insane. It cannot be doubted for a moment, that their intention was good: but, in matters political, rectitude of intention is