LETTER, &c. SIR, SOME of my opinions on Insanity, and the proper treatment of that direful malady, having been honored with your notice and approbation, I beg leave to give a summary of what I wished to urge upon this important subject, not doubting but that your honorable Committee are all extremely desirous that the result of their deliberations should be satisfactory and beneficial, and therefore that any information arising from attentive experience will prove acceptable. It is true, I cannot expect them fully to enter into my feelings; for they cannot have seen all the horrors of madness, and they are such as are not to be conceived without seeing; nor can they be fully aware of the dreadful inroads it makes into human happiness, even of those who are only the relations or friends of the immediate sufferers nor is it a small evil that it shall have excited so much the feelings of horror, odium and disgust, in those owning no kindred ties, where it B was only entitled to the feelings of commiseration and the kindest sympathies of our nature. That mental diseases are a most grievous evil, both moral and physical, there can be no doubt; that this evil has been greatly aggravated, continued and augmented by neglect, and improper treatment, is equally unquestionable. It is a prevailing opinion too, that this national opprobrium is alarmingly upon the increase; be that as it may, every possible exertion should be made to alleviate its afflictions; and the defects of our Laws, both as to the person and property of Lunatics, may be confidently insisted upon: Indeed they are by the visitation of this sore calamity put out of the pale of the Law, previous to a commission of Lunacy; and it is a notorious fact, that in many instances the person of the unfortunate sufferer is made a victim to the nefarious possession of the property; and though a Statute of Lunacy does recognize a right in the object of it, yet matters are frequently so managed as to render that right nugatory.-Juries are known to decide without seeing the Lunatic, and solely upon the evidence of those who may be interested in the question, and who can only give it as matter of opinion and not of fact; and in every instance the Statute is obtained for the benefit of others, and not for the sole advantage of the Lunatic, and in numberless cases it is known to operate as a most sore grievance; |