time before the date of her note, to say that
the patient was about to be placed in what
she conceived to be a very improper situation,
and being ignorant of the necessary forms, to
request that she might be sent for, and again
re-admitted.

                                                " May 29, 1851.

"I was with you about my sistar, Elizabeth
Evans. She is in the case I told you Sur, and
she is put with the man I told you by the
Justis, to save the paris a few shilins in the
year. But I hope to God that you will try
to get her to come to you. I was there last
night to see hur, and she is in a very bad stat
of life. She lay down on a Sac of Straw, and
her Hands were in Handcuffs, and hur Legs
were tied in some sort of Iron by the Bed
Post in a Chamber of a Earthen Bottom,
and I want you to judg wether this is fit for
my Sistar or not. The Relivin Officer and the
Guardins are very mutch aginst hur being
sent to you, and my opinion about these men
is, they are very unjest in their werks.
                                         " ANN JONES,
                                               " Hur Sistar."

"Without some deviation from the original
idiom and orthography of this note, its
meaning would be generally unintelligible;
but we apprehend that its good sense will be
universally admitted. The answer it received
was to the effect that, as the Superintendent
had no power to act in the affair, beyond
offering his opinion and advice, Ann Jones
was recommended to represent her sister's
case to the clergyman of the parish, and to
such other influential individuals as she might
think likely to take an interest in the matter.
The following observations were added, with
the view of demonstrating the inexpediency
of allowing the patient to remain in the
situation above described.

"In Elizabeth Evans' case, the mental
derangement is brought on mainly by her
inability to procure a sufficiency of proper
nourishment. Had pains been taken, upon
former occasions, to provide her with a good and
substantial diet, there is little likelihood that
she would ever have become insane. To
preserve her bodily health in sufficient vigour
must be the first object, and this can only be
accomplished, in her case, by an ample
allowance of food. Two or three pounds of
good beef or mutton every week are an
indispensable part of her treatment; and when
her spirits appear to be depressed, or if she
exhibit any other signs of weakness, an ample
supply of good malt liquor will be not less
necessary for the maintenance of her strength.
These observations apply to her case when
she is well, and must be considered to have
still greater force in the event of her complaint
having actually relapsed. The kind of treatment
here referred to was the only means
employed in the cure of her malady when she
was here."

We are glad to say that this suggestion was
acceded to, and that the patient was
accordingly re-admitted into the County Asylum,
on the 13th of June.

It is quite clear, that some more efficient
arrangements are required for the protection
of the insane poor from this grinding
parochial parsimony. Thrift in any proper sense
it certainly is not; and we can conceive no
plan so good for this purpose, and so likely to
afford general satisfaction, as some modification
of that which was proposed by the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, in the early part of the
present Session of Parliament, — such as
charging the difference between the rate of
maintenance in asylums, and the rate of
maintenance in workhouses, on the
Consolidated Fund. We have nothing to say
respecting the object with which such a
proposal was made. We only conceive that its
adoption would relieve many Union Boards
from an uncomfortable interruption to their
general business, and would confer an
inestimable boon on the insane poor, as well as on
their families and friends. We do not wish to
speak here of the still higher contingent
advantages which would accrue to the general
community from such an arrangement, and we
purposely confine our remarks to what we
conceive would be its direct practical
consequences. Relieving officers and overseers
would feel themselves unfettered by the
inclinations or prejudices of this or that
particular guardian—or of this or that particular
set; and the very important duty of those
minor functionaries, in relation to the care of
pauper lunatics, would be executed in more
strict conformity with the spirit and intention
of the Act of Parliament.

We shall now refer to the provisions in
existence for the care and treatment of such
insane persons as are above the necessity of
seeking for parochial aid. Of this class,
particularly among the higher orders, an unknown
number are singly guarded from injury by the
vigilance of private or professional friends, and
such of them as at length become utterly
unmanageable in this way, are removed either to
"licensed houses," to hospitals, or to asylums.

The last report of the Commissioners in
Lunacy showed us that the number of pauper
lunatics, placed under what we have termed
appropriate superintendence, that is to say,
confined either in public institutions or in
houses " licensed " for their reception, on the
1st of January, 1850, was eleven thousand
three hundred and five. Of that number,
sixty-four per cent. were lodged in public
institutions, and thirty-six per cent, in '' licensed
houses." But with respect to private patients,
or those whose independent resources are
sufficient for their maintenance, we find that this
balance is somewhat more than reversed; the
proportional number of those placed in public
institutions at the time in question having
been scarcely thirty per cent., whilst the
number confined in " licensed houses," was
not fewer than seventy per cent.; the whole