Lord Rosebery made an interesting speech at Bangour (Linlithgowshire) on
Wednesday on the occasion of the opening of a new asylum erected on the villa, or segregate, system by the Lunacy Board of Edinburgh. Lord Rosebery said that in the case of almost any other public institution the principal thing to be desired was that it should be full, that its sphere of influence might be increased. Here, however, his hope and wish was precisely the reverse, though, unhappily, there was little prospect of such a consummation. After calling attention to the ominous increase of lunacy revealed by statistics, and the immense national expenditure involved, Lord Rosebery alluded to the various impracticable theories of idealists to remedy the evil. For his own part, he believed the only hope to reside in the teaching of a higher and better system of life, and above all, in reducing the strain on the nerves by preventing incessant restlessness, whether by motor- cars—which he believed to be the worst, though he occasion- ally indulged in them himself—motor-bicycles, or unnecessary and injudicious travel. Lord Rosebery was on safer ground when he observed bow much better it would be if they could do for the intellectually living what they were here doing for the intellectually dead. They were making sumptuous houses for the insane; how few of the artisan class could even hope to have houses so sumptuous and comfortable ? He concluded by expressing the belief that the full flower of municipal work would not be reached until they attempted at least to level up the provision of accommodation for the living and worthy workman to that extended to the intellectually ill.
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