A return, moved for by Mr. S. Cave, shows the
number of houses in England and Wales licensed for the care of lunatics, and the number of patients on the 1st January of the present year. From this it appears that in the thirty-seven metro- politan licensed houses there were 1,871 private patients (1,064 men and 807 women), together with 190 pauper patients, in all 2,061. In the licensed houses of the rest of England and Wales there were 1,588 private patients (774 men and 814 women), with 540 pauper lunatics, in all 2,128. Thus in the whole of England and Wales the number of licensed houses is only ninety-seven, while the paying patients do not reach the number of 3,500. Surely,-then, it would be sufficiently easy for the Government, if it intends a serious reform of the Lunacy Laws, to transform the private houses gradually into public asylums, at compara- tively little cost to the public in the way of compensation for the vested interests attacked. This, we are persuaded, is the only direction which an effectual reform of the Lunacy Laws can take. And Mr. Cave's return seems to us to show that with prudence and tact, a Government really in earnest about the matter might extinguish the private asylums in a few years, at no great cost to the State.
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