As We Proceeded, A Man Rose From His Seat, And Laying Both Hands On A
Table Before Him, So As
To display his fingers, ornamented with rings made
of black ribbon, in which glass buttons were set for jewels, addressed
Dr.
Conolly with great respect, formally setting forth that he was in great
want of a new coat for Sundays, the one he had on being positively unfit
to appear in, and that a better had been promised him. The doctor stopped,
inquired into the case, and the poor fellow was gratified by the assurance
that the promised coat should be speedily forthcoming.
In his progress through the wards Dr. Conolly listened with great patience
to the various complaints of the inmates. One of them came up and told us
that he did not think the methods of the institution judicious. "The
patients," said he, "are many of them growing worse. One in particular,
who has been here for several weeks, I can see is growing worse every
day." Dr. Conolly asked the name of this patient - "I can not tell," said
the man, "but I can bring him to you." "Bring him then," said the doctor;
and after a moment's absence he returned, leading up one of the healthiest
and quietest looking men in the ward. "He looks better to be sure," said
the man, "but he is really worse." A burst of laughter from the patients
who stood by followed this saying, and one of them looking at me
knowingly, touched his forehead to intimate that the objector was not
exactly in his senses.
In one of the female wards we were introduced, as gentlemen from America,
to a respectable-looking old lady in black, who sat with a crutch by her
side. "Are you not lawyers?" she asked, and when we assured her that we
were only Yankees, she rebuked us mildly for assuming such a disguise,
when she knew very well that we were a couple of attorneys. "And you,
doctor," she added, "I am surprised that you should have any thing to do
with such a deception." The doctor answered that he was very sorry she had
so bad an opinion of him, as she must be sensible that he had never said
any thing to her which was not true. "Ah, doctor," she rejoined, "but you
are the dupe of these people."
It was in the same ward, I think, that a well-dressed woman, in a bonnet
and shawl, was promenading the room, carrying a bible and two smaller
volumes, apparently prayer or hymn books. "Have you heard the very
reverend Mr. - - , in - - chapel?" she asked of my fellow-traveller. I
have unfortunately forgotten the name of the preacher and his chapel. On
being answered in the negative, "Then go and hear him," she added, "when
you return to London." She went on to say that the second coming of the
Saviour was to take place, and the world to be destroyed in a very few
days, and that she had a commission to proclaim the approach of that
event. "These poor people," said she, "think that I am here on the same
account as themselves, when I am only here to prepare the way for the
second coming."
"I'm thinking, please yer honor, that it is quite time I was let out of
this place," said a voice as we entered one of the wards. Dr. Conolly told
me that he had several Irish patients in the asylum, and that they gave
him the most trouble on account of the hurry in which they were to be
discharged. We heard the same request eagerly made in the same brogue by
various other patients of both sexes.
As I left this multitude of lunatics, promiscuously gathered from the poor
and the reduced class, comprising all varieties of mental disease, from
idiocy to madness, yet all of them held in such admirable order by the law
of kindness, that to the casual observer most of them betrayed no symptoms
of insanity, and of the rest, many appeared to be only very odd people,
quietly pursuing their own harmless whims, I could not but feel the
highest veneration for the enlightened humanity by which the establishment
was directed. I considered, also, if the feeling of personal liberty, the
absence of physical restraint, and the power of moral motives, had such
power to hold together in perfect peace and order, even a promiscuous band
of lunatics, how much greater must be their influence over the minds of
men in a state of sanity, and on how false a foundation rest all the
governments of force! The true basis of human polity, appointed by God in
our nature, is the power of moral motives, which is but another term for
public opinion.
Of the political controversies which at present agitate the country, the
corn-law question is that which calls forth the most feeling; I mean on
the part of those who oppose the restrictions on the introduction of
foreign grain - for, on the other side, it appears to me that the battle is
languidly fought. Nothing can exceed the enthusiasm of the adversaries of
the corn-laws. With some of them the repeal of the tax on bread is the
remedy for all political evils. "Free trade, free trade," is the burden of
their conversation, and although a friend of free trade myself, to the
last and uttermost limit, I have been in circles in England, in which I
had a little too much of it. Yet this is an example to prove what a strong
hold the question has taken of the minds of men, and how completely the
thoughts of many are absorbed by it. Against such a feeling as that which
has been kindled in Great Britain, on the corn-law question, no law in our
country could stand. So far as I can judge, it is spreading, as well as
growing stronger.
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