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ENFORCEMENT
1828 Madhouse
Act section 49 + 1832
Madhouse Act section 59:
Legal actions under or by virtue of the Act were only to be taken by the
order of a (1828: Quarterly) meeting of the commissioners or General
Quarter Sessions within their respective jurisdictions 1832: "or as is
otherwise directed by this Act" (see
single lunatics)
1828 section 44, 1832 section 60: The London and county clerks (1828: in
counties where any house for the reception of insane persons was situated)
were authorised and/or (*) required to (1832: enforce the due execution of
the Act and) sue for and recover all penalties and forfeitures granted by
the Act, on their own authority, in all cases not requiring the previous
order of the commissioners, JPs, Lord Chancellor or Home Secretary (see single lunatics)
1828 section 46, 1832 section 56: Except where otherwise directed [I cannot
see what this related to] actions were to be taken before one (1832: two in
some cases - [It is not clear to me which]) or more JPs for the place where
the offence was committed. 1828 section 47, 1832 section 57: There was a
right of appeal to Quarter Sessions.
Misdemeanours
Most offenses with penalties imposed by the Acts were "deemed
misdemeanours", which meant they were crimes not subject to capital
punishment nor involving automatic forfeiture of all the convicted
offenders property, as felonies did until 1870. Misdemeanours were thus, by
definition, offenses subject to fines or imprisonment.
Commissioner Sykes (See 3.9) referred to the offenses "carrying the penalty
of misdemeanour".
Minimum and maximum penalties were not, however, otherwise fixed and I
assume this was left to the JPs.
The 1828 Madhouse
Act section 46 + 1832
Madhouse Act section 56 seem to say JP/s should first
attempt recovery of a penalty by distress and sale of the offenders goods,
and only if such pecuniary penalty could not be realised, sentence the
offender to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months. But
Moseley in 1836-1837 was sentenced at Clerkenwell Sessions to
twelve months for keeping an unlicensed house. He was, in fact, released by
the Home Secretary after only three months, but not because the JPs had
exceeded their powers, but because the magnitude of sentence was owing to
"some misapprehension of the facts" (1837 Report)
Only two offenses in the 1828 Madhouses Act had a penalty stated in another
form: Refusal to attend as a witness or give evidence on oath
(see above) and acting as a
commissioner whilst interested (see
above) were subject to specified fines.
It was a misdemeanour to:
Give an incomplete house plan with intention to deceive
Conceal a patient (1832: or part of
a house) from official visitors
Sign a false certificate, or one for
admission into a house in which one had an interest
PROTECTION
1828 Madhouse
Act only:
section 48 provided protection as in the
1774 Madhouse Act section 33
section 49 included:
EXEMPTION CLAUSES
1828 Madhouse
Act section 50 + 1832 Madhouse Act section 62:
Nothing in the Act was to apply to Bethlem, the Royal Military or Naval
Hospitals or to County Asylums (*)
1828 Madhouse
Act section 51:
Nothing in the Act was to apply to other hospitals: "excepting in as far as
it relates to certificates of
admission" (*),
visitations appointed by the
Lord Chancellor, King's Bench, Common Pleas or the Home
Secretary, "and the
transmission to the clerk of the commissioners annual report"
[Yearly Return]
"as herein-before directed" (**)
(**) Which, generously interpreted, related back to
section 26. (See
Central Records, Yearly
Return and Hospitals
1832 Madhouse Act section 63:
Nothing in this Act to apply to other hospitals excepting as far as relates
to [note no mention of certificates]
visitations appointed by the
Lord Chancellor or the Home Secretary and "the transmission in
August... every year of a full and complete report, according to the
Form Schedule
(M)... of every patient confined... or
confined... within twelve
months preceding, and ending... 31st July, to the Lord Chancellor... and
also to the Clerk of the Metropolitan Commissioners, who shall file and
preserve the same for the inspection of the said Metropolitan
Commissioners". (see 3S.4.8.2)
FINANCES
The costs of the Physician Commission (and some County Visitors before
1828) were met entirely out of Licence fees
(see 1774 finances
and
excess costs),
but the 1828 Madhouse Act allowed excess costs of the commission to be
met by the Treasury, and those of County Visitors from County Rates
(1) The Commission's Finances
1828 Madhouse
Act section 15:
The London clerk was to retain the Licence fees and from them pay and
defray all the expenses required to be disbursed in the execution of the
Act, on the commissioners' order. He was to keep a true Account of these
receipts and payments to May 31st each year, which was to be signed by five
or more commissioners and sent to the Treasury which could direct any
surplus to be paid into the consolidated fund, or, "if there be any balance
due to the said Clerk", direct it be paid out of the consolidated fund.
If these provisions had not been amended before the end of the first
financial year, the London Clerk could only have met all the expenses by
advancing of £1,200 to the Commission (over the £1,040 received
for Licences). As it was, he was only kept in surplus during the year
because the fees of the medical commissioners and a shorthand writer, and
his own salary, were not paid until the next year
(Account 1829).
By the
1829 Madhouses Law Amendment Act (Royal
Assent 14.5.1829) section 8, the Treasury could pay the Clerk "from time to
time" such sums it deemed fit to defray the expenses, on the application of
a commissioners meeting with at least seven commissioners signing the
application, and provided it was shown that such a balance was due the
Clerk. By section 9, an annual Account of the receipts and expenses
(a) of the clerk, under
the Acts, to the 1st August, was to be laid before Parliament on or before
the (following, I assume) 25th March or, if Parliament was not sitting,
within a month of its sitting.
1832
Madhouse
Act section 20:
The corresponding provisions consolidated those of 1828 and 1829, further
providing that the Act laid before Parliament should be signed by five or
more commissioners and amending the wording so that the Treasury could make
a payment before a balance could actually be shown to be due, and that
payments could cover expenses "incidental to" as well as "incurred under"
the Act.
(2) County Finances
1828 Madhouse
Act section 15 + 1832
Madhouse Act sections 20+21:
The county clerk was to retain the Licence fees and from them pay all
expenses (1828: upon the order of the visitors). His Account (1828: to the
day before Michaelmas Quarter Sessions, 1832: to August 1st), each year,
was to be (1832: approved and) signed by at least two visitors and
submitted (182???: by the clerk) to Michaelmas Quarter Sessions. Any
surplus was to be paid to the County Treasurer or, if a balance was due,
the Treasurer was to pay it to the clerk out of the County Rate on the
order of two or more of the JPs (1832: in Quarter Sessions assembled)
SOME DEFINITIONS
Doctor
Not used in the Acts. I use it when reference is to a medical
practitioner or to a "physician, surgeon or apothecary".
Apothecary
Defined in the 1828 MadhouseAct section 52 and the 1832
Madhouse
Act section 2 to mean an authorized apothecary under the 1815
Apothecaries
Act or
the 1825 Apothecaries Amendment Act.
Physician
No definition in 1828. By the 1832 Madhouse Act section 2 to mean a
Fellow or Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in
London.
Surgeon
No definition in 1828. By the 1832 Madhouse Act section 2 to mean
any
member of the London College of Surgeons.
insane person
By the 1828
Madhouse
Act section 2 to mean any lunatic or
dangerous idiot. By the 1829 Madhouse Amendment Act section
15 extended to
all
persons whatsoever who are lunatic, idiot or of unsound mind.
(Extended
definition continued in the 1832 Madhouse Act section 2)
FORMS
The forms were in schedules to the Acts which were referred to
in the Act
and therefore part of the Acts.
1828 A Annual Report
(Yearly
Return)
1832 A Licence
Form M, 1832
was modelled on
Form A, 1828.
It was to be
used as the
local
register; a
book of entry in
hospitals
(non paupers) and an
annual report from
licensed
houses, with certain adaptations in each case.
On the form was listed every patient admitted during the
preceding year, in
the order of admission (with dates), the name of the person
who sent the
patient, the name of the person who signed the medical
certificate, the
patient's name, sex, age, marital status, occupation and
parish, whether
the patient was a
chancery
lunatic, the date of discharge (and whether cured,
relieved or
incurable) or death.
The signature of the medical attendant, the date (s?) of his
visits and his
observations were required, and the signature of the
commissioners or
visitors, with date (s?) of their visits and their general
observations on
the condition of patients and the state of the establishment.
© Andrew Roberts 1981-
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"With respect to... insane patients... lodged... in single houses... there
were no returns, the commissioners were excluded by the statute from any
interference... The only control they had over the single houses was this -
that if a patient resided in one more than twelve month, the owner of the
house was compelled to communicate under seal the name of that patient to
the clerk of the commission. But for the most part no notice whatever was
taken of this law, and it was frequently evaded by removing the patient,
after a residence of eleven months, to some other lodging." (Ashley,
Hansard 23.7.1844 cols 1258-1259)
The 1844 Report (pages 166-167) said about sections 46 and 47 of the 1832 Act: "it is a misdemeanour to receive to board, or lodge, in any house not licensed, any insane person, pauper or otherwise, without having the usual order and certificates required for private patients confined in asylums, and copies of such order and certificates are directed to be transmitted to the Clerk of the Metropolitan Commissioners in Lunacy. The law in this respect appears to be wholly disregarded as respects paupers, and very much evaded as respects private patients. No orders or certificates whatever, authorising the reception of paupers, are ever sent to our clerk, and those relating to private patients are so few in number as to render it manifest that the most culpable negligence exists. The 47th section [of the 1832 Act] does not require the orders and certificates to be sent until within twelve months after a patient has been received. The length of time allowed to send in the orders and certificates has, we incline to think, been one cause of the provisions of the Act being evaded. We have reason for believing that the proprietors of licensed houses receive private patients in lodgings, without ever making any return of the orders and certificates, which they are required to receive and to transmit to our clerk." |