ABSTRACT
In 1814, 1816, 1817 and 1819, Bills to amend the law about madhouses passed the House of Commons, but the proposals to subject all madhouses to inspection, and to appoint eight Lunacy Commissioners for the purpose, were too daring for the Lords, who rejected each Bill in turn. The visits of the Metropolitan Commissioners to provincial houses and institutions had an important sequel, for a Report from the Commissioners in Lunacy, published towards the end of the session in 1844, prepared the way for the Acts of 1845. The Times, in its indignation at what it called the “decent shelving” of the lunacy question, anticipated some modern critics of the party system. In February, 1877, Dillwyn obtained a Select Committee to inquire into the Lunacy Law “so far as regards the security afforded by it against violations of personal liberty.”
