Suggestions as to the expediency of erecting a public asylum for the insane, belonging to the counties of Cumberland & Westmorland : in a series of letters to Edward Williams Hasell, esq., chairman of the Quarter Sessions / by Richard Oliver.

  • Oliver, Richard.
Date:
[1842-1843]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Suggestions as to the expediency of erecting a public asylum for the insane, belonging to the counties of Cumberland & Westmorland : in a series of letters to Edward Williams Hasell, esq., chairman of the Quarter Sessions / by Richard Oliver. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    among these I need, perhaps, scarcely mention that the writer strongly insists upon the universal establishment of County Asylums. Distinguished, 1 believe, alike for his talents and his enlightened and persevering efforts to ameliorate the con- dition of the insane in this country, he has thought it necessary to deprecate the mistrust of those who, unacquainted with such circumstances, may be apt to suppose that his description of the condition of many insane persons, when placed under the care of their own relatives, is over-charged ; for widely scattered among the general population as such patients are, few persons, but those whose duties are connected with an enquiry of this nature, can have any opportunity of becoming acquainted with particular facts of the kind alluded to,—far less have any idea of the extent of the evils described. At the conclusion of the paper, the writer states that “ The licensed asylums throughout the kingdom are, upon the whole, very inferior establishments to county asylums. Although under a magisterial sur- veillance, it is often a painful and irksome duty to a high-minded man to spy into the management of a private house; and hence the duty is seldom performed excepting at stated periods, of which due notice is given, and of course every thing is then found in such admirable order, that there appears little room to find fault.” Reverting' for a moment to the facts stated at the beginning of this letter, with respect to the comparative mortality of the insane under different circumstances of management, and then turning altogether from that part of the subject which relates to the personal advantage of the patients, it will be necessary, I am aware, to devote some consideration to the means whereby such a provision as that which we are here contem- plating may be carried into effect. Empowered by the 9th George IV., chapter 40, to assess a special county rate for defraying the necessary cost of erecting and upholding such an edifice as may be deemed suitable for the purpose in question, the magistrates of any county are likewise authorised by the same act not only to treat with any one or more adjacent counties, with the view of obtaining their co-operation in this object; but, still further to facilitate the same, to borrow money upon mortgage of the rates, under conditions specified in the K th, 14th, and 16th sectioTis of the act in question.* With the magistrates, then, would appear to rest the question as to whether or not it may be expedient to carry a design of this kind into execution ; and if the great * Aasiguing to Cumberland twn-thirda and to Westmorland one-tliird of the expense required, on a sufficiently lilieral calculation, for the purchase of ground, and lor the complete estahli.hment anil fitting up ol an institution adapted for the reception of be- tween 150 and 200 patients, the whole of the debt incurred would be liquidated by quarterly asseasinents of a farthing in the pound, in eight years, that is, in six years less than the lime limited by the act.