THE RETRRAT OF INTELLECT.—SiT ANDREW HALLIDAY has pub. lished, in
the shape of an epistle to Lord ROBERT SEYMOUR, (why to THE RETRRAT OF INTELLECT.—SiT ANDREW HALLIDAY has pub. lished, in the shape of an epistle to Lord ROBERT SEYMOUR, (why to Lord ROBERT ?) a most lamentable account of the brains of his Majesty's subjects. Sir ANDREW declares that the number of persons who have lost the whole or the best part of their wits, has fearfully increased of late years. Whether the demand, as well as the supply of intellect, have not decreased at least since the passing c. the Catholic Bill, is a question that the economists would do well to consider. The Chronicle, which had been brooding on Sir ANDREW'S letter all Saturday and Sunday, came forth on Monday morning with a most melancholy article hatched to the woful occasion. "The statement," quoth our contemporary, " is calculated to alarm the stoutest-hearted (qu. headed) among us." There are, it appears from Sir ANDREW'S tables, not fewer in round numbers than twenty thousand individuals in Great Britain, to say nothing of Ireland, who have no better claim to the title of rational beings than has a plucked pigeon ! We confess that, at the first blush, we felt gratified by the announcement of this fact, inasmuch as our experience of humanity had led us to anticipate a considerably higher ratio of the mad to the wise than I to 750; but what follows is really awful. " The number of idiots and insane triples every twenty years !'' Think of that, Mr. SADLER ! There is a subject on which you may employ your eloquence to some purpose. It is a serious question which the Chronicle puts,—" if the number of insane people triples every twenty years, what proportion will the sane bear to the insane at the end of two hundred years ? " By the pre- siding genius of our contemporary and her owl to hoot, it will be a China orange to the Bank of England ! In the year of our Lord 2030, the number of idiots and insane in Old England, according to the most exact computation, will be one thousand one hundred and eighty millions nine hundred and eighty thousand ! We shall all be as mad as March hares, every mother's son of us ! The puzzle is, how the deuce the population is to keep pace with Sir ANDREW'S progression. According to MALTHUS'S calculations, in two hundred years hence the whole of the people of Great Britain will not amount to more than sixty millions ; so that here is, not fifty madmen to one philosopher, but the mad are fifty times more numerous than the whole community, themselves included! Supposing MALTHUS wrong, where are the potatoes to come from for such an astounding number? Your fools are great feeders. By the by, we see from the tables, that, compared with English or Welsh, there are a prodigious number of Scotch idiots. We would fain know if the excess depend on the climate, or if it be con- stitutional; and if the latter, whether Sir ANDREW HALLIDAY has included the exported specimens, or has limited his statement to those that are kept for home consumption?
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