priate to the occasion, after which the children sang the National Anthem, assisted by the whole of the assemblage.

The Luncheon.-At two o'clock a dejeuner, in celebration of the event, took place at the Exchange Rooms, at which, in the absence of the Mayor, his Grace the Duke of Newcastle presided. The company consisted of the élite of the town and county.

The DUKE, in responding to the toast of his health, administered the following rebuke to the gentleman who proposed it; thus vindicating his reputation as a man and a nobleman, said: Ladies and gentlemen, I feel it is invidious to raise any objection to anything which falls from any-one so kind as Mr. Norton, and who makes a speech so eulogistic; but if he will forgive me, I really would wish to remonstrate with him as to some of the phrases which I am sure were so kindly meant. I can assure him they were wholly out of place, and always unpleasant to me. Why did he speak of affability, and of my patronage of this institution? I can assure him I don't understand affability; and as for patronage of this institution, I consider myself as one among a great many of its supporters, but I do not consider myself as a patron of this institution. I would suggest, if he will forgive me, that if he is kind enough to propose my health on any future occasion, it would give me pleasure if he would refrain from using such words as affability and condescension, which are very distasteful to me, simply because I do not understand them. I feel the sincerest respect for all persons about me, and think that if there is one privilege of high rank which makes it valuable, it is that of being able, frequently beyond the merits of the individual, beyond his worldly wealth, and beyond any circumstances of that kind, to render such assistance to his friends and neighbours, as I have had it in my power to-day to render. I can assure you that it is one of the chief gratifications of my life to do so; and I only value the accidental circumstances of birth and position, inasmuch as I am able to render them useful in fulfilling the duties of life. Forgive me that these few words have been elicited by the kindly meant remarks of Mr. Norton, and accept my warmest thanks for the honour you have done me.

The Site and Plan for the New Building.

The site selected is about seventeen acres from the Coppice Farm, a mile to the north-east of Nottingham, on a lofty elevation which was purchased on favourable terms from the Corporation. Mr. Hine, the architect, visited several lunatic hospitals, and, by a minute inspection of their arrangements, gathered a vast amount of information, of which he availed himself in preparing the plans of the present building. The south or main front is about 270 feet in length, and will possess a façade of considerable length. The centre part of the building will be used as a residence for the medical superintendent and matron of the establishment, one of the upper stories being set apart for the infirmary. Immediately

behind are the extensive kitchens, which will be fitted up with every convenience for cooking. Over the kitchen is a large and lofty room, with an open timbered roof, which will be used for purposes of recreation, and likewise as a chapel, until the funds of the institution admit of a more suitable building being erected. The patients' apartments on either side of the centre building, occupy a couple of stories, and each wing will consist of two large day-rooms, two associated sleeping apartments, and the same number of galleries. In addition to these are private sitting and bed-rooms, closets, and every requisite which can tend to promote the health and comfort of the inmates. Provision is made for extending the accommodation, not only by several rooms in the roof of the wings, which will be left for the present in an unfinished state, but by lengthening the galleries and increasing the number of private rooms. The arrangements in the latter are so contrived that the present galleries will suffer no diminution in the amount of light, prospect, or ventilation. Accommodation will be provided for thirty male and the like number of female patients. The basement story, the north side of which contains the inferior offices, will present to the south an open ambulatory, communicating with the airing-grounds by arches. The approach from the galleries in the day-room stories to these grounds, will be by gently inclined planes. The two airing-grounds are separated from one another by the superintendents' garden, which will be formed on the original level of the hill summit, and some seven feet above that of the patients' gardens. In addition to the above-named are two detached buildings for brewing, washing, and laundry purposes. The contract for the building was undertaken by Messrs. Garland and Holland, Nottingham, but since the commencement it has been transferred to Mr. Wm. Holland.

Admission of Reporters to the Board Meetings of Asylums.

A subject has been brought under our notice of much importance to the efficient management of Irish asylums, namely the example which has been set in the Cork and Mullingar Asylums of admitting the reporters of the public press to the ordinary meetings of the governors.

No one can have a more profound esteem for the fourth estate than ourselves, but there are times and places when its representatives are out of place; they are out of place as we think on all occasions of a domestic nature, and the newspaper reports which sometimes appear of marriage speeches and festivities, seem to us almost as repulsive to good

taste, and as adverse to any good moral influence, as would be the published account of domestic lamentations when the home is shadowed by the dark wing of death. Now a lunatic asylum is a large home, public indeed to a certain extent, managed by officers and a board responsible to public opinion, but the details of its domestic management are subjects as unfit for registration in the columns of the county papers, as any other private and domestic affairs. The general principles of management indeed and their effects, the financial disbursements, and any matter having a public interest, are proper subjects for a newspaper report; and if in Ireland they do not come before the notice of the public, and thus become the subject of newspaper report in the periodical account which the Governors have to give in Quarter Session of the charge committed to them, we think it would be well that meetings at certain intervals should be held to which the public and the press may be admitted, and at which all matters of a public nature may be discussed. But to admit the reporters of the local press to the ordinary private meetings of the board, at which all the little domesticities of the asylum home are liable to come under notice, where small misunderstandings are set right, and petty matters of conduct and management are arranged, is a glaring abuse of the office of the press. We have before us the Cork Constitution in the columns of which the proceedings of the monthly meeting of the Board of Governors of the Cork lunatic asylum for Tuesday, Nov. 3rd, are fully reported. First comes a discussion on the name of the asylum, which it appears was named the Eglinton asylum, in compliment to the late estimable Lord Lieutenant. One Governor, Mr. Dunscombe, thought that the worst compliment you could pay a Lord Lieutenant, was to name a mad-house after him; but one Mr. Dowden, another Governor, was exceedingly fond of jokes, and he had compassed the joke of naming this asylum after Lord Eglinton. Surely if it was a bad compliment to do so, this manner of explaining it is a far worse. The original naming was no doubt a bit of toadyism to the man then in power, but to revoke the name and explain it as a joke is simply an insult. A joke to be a joke must have a point, and the only possible point of naming a mad-house, with the purpose of a jest, after a Lord Lieutenant is sufficiently obvious and gross. Lord Eglinton's active and benevolent interest in the welfare of the insane poor in Ireland merited a better return. In Scotland it is not thought a joke, or as Sir Thomas Tobins, the Cork chairman said, "a very dubious compliment," to call the no

blest lunatic asylum in the country by the name of the Crichton Institution.

The jocose Mr. Dowden, next proceeded to an act of interference with the medical management of the patients. He thought there were not enough of them taking open air exercise at the time of his visit, and although Dr. Power explained that at the time there were 243 patients employed in various occupations, Mr. Dowden moved a resolution that the Dr. should give his patients more exercise. Possibly this also was a joke, a very sorry one. Then came a discussion respecting a misunderstanding between the store-keeper and the coalcontractor, in which there were "conflicting statements;" then several complaints of insubordination on the part of the nurses were laid before the board and considered.

Mrs. Larkin, who had been in the establishment for the last ten years, was reported for refusing to obey an order given to her by the matron. It was resolved that she should be dismissed. Julia Barrett, for impertinence to Mr. Rennick, house-steward, was fined 3s. 6d. Others for minor offences received reprimands.

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The Chairman observed, that the servants were very conducted, and agreed very badly amongst themselves. A great portion of the time of the Board was occupied every day investigating complaints.

Mr. Dunscome: "There is a great deal of time lost with them, indeed."

Mr. F. Beamish: "There is something bad pervading the establishment."

Mr. Dunscombe: "Yes, there seems to be a general insubordination."

Certainly there is something bad pervading the establishment, namely, the influence of vain, egotistical men as Governors, whose proceedings appear but too well adapted to promote a general insubordination. By transforming their board into a petty police court, they will doubtless succeed in driving from the asylum all good servants. By denying to their Superintendant all proper authority over such servants as he can procure, they will get plenty of complaints to investigate; and by publishing such investigations in the newspapers they will find themselves at length served by such persons only, as are indifferent to the public exposure of any venial lapse of temper or conduct. Was it not enough to dismiss

the insubordinate Mrs. Larkin for her act of disobdience ? Was it not enough to fine and reprimand the impertinent Julia? but they must also be gibbetted to the whole country

side, as examples of board-room justice. The officers and attendants at the Cork asylum must be very thick skinned. We trust that the patients possess the like quality for the natural course of events will cause them to need it.

After these complaints were disposed of, the jocose Mr. Dowden became quite eloquent on "a complaint he had to make, they had no schoolmaster there," &c., "they could get one for twenty pounds a-year," "there is no doubt we pay a wretched price for mind." Alas, yes! One of the prices we pay is to have places of business converted into oratorical platforms, and our time wasted in listening to bunkum speeches. Bunkum, is the American term for those speeches in Congress, which are solely intended for the local newspapers, and the gratification of the friends and constituents of the orator. Bunkum occupies a vast space of time at St. Stephens, to the great hinderance of business; but if it invades successfully the board-rooms of asylums, gaols, unions, and other places, which ought to be centres of action alone, it will exalt throughout the country, the unpractical wind-bag man, above the man of affairs, and prove about the worst thing that ever came from the west.

The New State Asylum.

A site for the new State Asylum has been fixed on near the spot where the counties of Surrey, Berks, and Hants meet. It is about thirty miles from London, and is most accessible by the Branch of the South Eastern Railway, which connects Reading on the Great Western with Farnborough, on the South Western Railway. The State Insanery will be the subject of much attention; it may be a step in advance, or it may prove to be an expectation unfulfilled.

All counties are equally obliged to provide an asylum for their poor. These asylums are under the government of the Magistracy, and are liable to be made Police Asylums. when the Secretary of State orders the removal of an insane patient from prison; or when the Magistrates need their care for wandering lunatics; for lunatics who are not under proper care and control, or are cruelly treated or neglected. These County Asylums are also termed Pauper Asylums. What will their relation be to the State Asylum ? Equal accessibility will be impossible. Will any advantage be conceded to the adjacent or mtropolitan counties? or