A BILL To amend the Law concerning Lunatic Asylums, and the Care of Pauper Lunatics, in England. [Note.-The Words printed in Italics are proposed to be inserted in the Committee.] 5 W 8 & 9 Vict. CRCAS doubts have been entertained whether, under the Preamble: provisions of an Act of the last Session of Parliament, intituled, "An Act to amend the Laws for the Provision and Regulation c. 126. of Lunatic Asylums for Counties and Boroughs, and for the Maintenance and Care of Pauper Lunatics in England," it is incumbent on Justices of the Peace and others therein specified to issue orders for the reception into a Lunatic Asylum, or house licensed or hospital registered for the reception of Lunatics, of all persons who shall be brought before them, or whom they shall visit in the manner pre10 scribed by the said Act, and of whose Lunacy they shall be satisfied, or only of those persons of whose Lunacy they shall be satisfied, and whom they shall deem proper persons to be confined, according to the tenor of the order set forth in the Form numbered One in the Schedule marked (E.) annexed to the said Act; BE it Declared and 15 Enacted, by The QUEEN's most Excellent MAJESTY, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, THAT it shall not be deemed incumbent on any Justice of the Peace, or upon any Clergyman, Overseer or 20 Relieving Officer, to sign or issue such order as aforesaid, in all cases in which the Physician, Surgeon or Apothecary, whom he or they shall have called to his or their assistance, shall have signed the certificate, according to the Form numbered One in the said Schedule (E.), as provided by the said Act; but that every Justice, Clergyman, Overseer, 576. or 1. In what cases others are to for Confine ment of Lu Justices and issue orders natics. 2, Committees of Justices may be appointed hereafter for providing Lunatic Asylums. 3. Several Committees to be appointed. or Relieving Officer, by whom any such order shall be signed or issued in the case of every such person of whose lunacy he shall be satisfied, shall be bound, before signing the order, to satisfy himself of the propriety of confining such Lunatic in a Lunatic Asylum, unless a medical certificate that such Lunatic is a proper person to be so confined, in the same form as the medical certificate in the said Schedule (E.) number One, shall have been signed by the Medical Officer of the union or parish to which the Lunatic belongs, as well as by the said Physician, Surgeon or Apothecary, in which case such Two medical certificates shall be received by every such Justice, Clergyman, Overseer and Relieving Officer as conclusive evidence that such Lunatic is a proper person to be so confined. 5 1 AND whereas by the said Act it is enacted, that a Committee of Justices to superintend or to treat and enter into an agreement for the erecting or providing an Asylum for the Pauper Lunatics of any 15 county or borough which has no Asylum for the Pauper Lunatics thereof, shall be appointed at the time and in the manner prescribed by the said Act, after public notice of the intention to appoint such Committee given on or before the general or quarter sessions for such county or borough next after the Twentieth day of December 20 One thousand eight hundred and Forty-five; but the said notices have not in all cases been duly given, and the Committees have not been duly appointed in all cases where notices have been given or have ceased to exist without carrying into effect the purposes for which they were appointed; BE it Enacted, That such Committee shall be ap- 25 pointed in every county and borough which has no Asylum for the Pauper Lunatics thereof, and in which it has not already been appointed, or in which the Committee has ceased to exist without carrying into effect the purposes for which it was appointed, and that such Committee, when appointed, shall have all the powers specified in the 30 said Act, and the provisions of the said Act with respect to erecting and providing such Asylums shall thereupon be put in execution, and public notice of the intention to appoint such Committee shall be given in the manner prescribed by the said Act on or before the general quarter session of the peace for such county or borough 55 next after the passing of this Act, or on or before some subsequent general quarter session of the peace for such county or borough. AND whereas by the said Act provision is made, that in certain cases therein specified, more than One Asylum shall be erected or provided in a county or borough, and it hath been doubted whether 40 a separate Committee of Justices should be appointed in reference to every such Asylum; BE it Declared and Enacted, That the true intent and meaning of the said Act is, that a separate Committee of Justices 5 10 Justices be appointed in every such county or borough for every such Asylum, each of which Committees shall have all the powers and be subject to all the provisions of the said Act with regard to the Asylum for which it is appointed, as if it were the only Asylum for that county or borough: Provided always, That it shall be lawful for the Justices of the county or borough, if they shall think fit, with the approval of One of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, to appoint the same Committee for Two or more such Asylums. 4. powers of borrowing Money. And be it Enacted, That the powers given by the said Act to the Extending Justices of every such county and to the Council of every such borough to borrow money toward defraying the expenses of carrying into effect the purposes of the said Act, or of any Act thereby repealed, whenever it should appear, as therein provided, that such expenses would exceed the several sums of Five thousand Pounds or Two 15 thousand Pounds, in the several cases therein specified, shall be extended to all cases in which it shall appear to the said Justices or Council respectively expedient to borrow money toward defraying such expenses, whether or not it shall appear that such expenses will exceed the sum of Five thousand Pounds or Two thousand Pounds, as the case may be; and such money may be raised in any sum or sums at any rate of interest not exceeding the yearly rate of Fire Pounds in the hundred. 20 5. And be it Enacted, That this Act shall be construed with and as Act to be conpart of the said Act of the last Session of Parliament. strued with 8 & 9 Vict., c. 126. 6. any And be it Enacted, That this Act may be amended or repealed by Act may be amended or repealed. |