ABSTRACT
Caius Gabriel Cibber's grim pair of statues, 'Raving and Melancholy Madness', were chosen for the frontispiece, and were unmistakably English in style and purpose. The history was dedicated to the Right Worshipful Brass Crosby, President from 1782 to 1793; the Worshipful Richard Clark, Treasurer and then Lord Mayor in 1784; Henry Cranke, Auditor-General; and the Governors of the Hospitals of Bridewell and Bethlem. Considered as a history, the sixteen-page presentation written by Thomas Bowen, the Reader and Schoolmaster at Bridewell Hospital, was cursory, lacking in depth, and in one main point erroneous. Although its author was a Fellow of St John's College, Oxford, it was not designed to satisfy scholarly appetites. Above all it was a panegyric, an appeal for 'alms', and Bowen referred explicitly to 'that active spirit of humanity, and rational benevolence which peculiarly adorns the British name,.3 The Governors ordered the Account to be distributed 'in such a manner, as may tend most effectually to promote the Interests of that excellent Charity'. John Woodhouse, the Clerk, duly sent the Account to every Governor, members of both Houses of Parliament, and to a large number of bankers and editors. He was tailoring his market to those who could afford to give and would be inclined to do so by building on existing sympathies. Bethlem was, after all, well represented in Parliament and in the City, from where it continued to draw most of its Governors.
