Вroadmoor Asylum and its Inmates. "They are not ours, The fleeting flowers, Hut lights of God That through the sod Flash upward from the world beneath, — That region peopled wide with death, — And tell us in each subtle hue That life renewed is passing through Our world again to seek the skies, Its native realm of Paradise."
There is an immortality in the influence even of those who " live faithfully hidden lives, and rest in unvisited tombs; much
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more in the influence of those who by great personality set in motion those " echoes that roll from soul to soul, and grow forever and forever." We may apply the noble words of William Watson to the forceful and kindly spirit that has left us : — "And now from our vain plaudits greatly fled, He with diviner silence dwells instead. Unto no earthly seas with transient roar, Unto no earthly airs he sets his sail, But far beyond our vision and our hail Is heard forever, and is seen no more."
BROADMOOR ASYLUM AND ITS INMATES. BY л LEUAL VISITOR. "ПГ*НЕ prisoner was acquitted on the •*- ground of insanity, and directed to be detained during her Majesty's pleasure." How often does the newspaper report of a criminal trial end with these commonplace and colorless words, and how many readers understand their significance, or attach to them any definite idea whatever? In this paper I propose to give an account, based on personal observation, of the great English asylum for the reception of criminal lunatics and lunatic criminals, and thus, if possible, to bridge over a gap in popular knowledge. Down to the year 1860 persons accused of having committed a criminal offence, but found insane upon arraignment or by the verdict of the jury that tried them, and con victs who became lunatic while undergoing their terms of imprisonment, were in this country simply distributed under a magiste rial or judicial order, among the various county and other asylums, where they were main tained at a cost of from £26 to £34 a year. This system had, however, a number of ob vious disadvantages, of which the chief were the evil influence exerted by criminal lunatics upon ordinary patients, who in spite of their madness have a large and comprehensive faculty of imitation, and the impossibility of
subjecting the criminal inmates of such asy lums to adequate supervision and control; and accordingly in 1860, principally through the agency of the Earl of Shaftesbury, an act of Parliament was passed authorizing the establishment of a State Criminal Lunatic Asylum for England. Three years later the project contemplated by this statute was car ried into effect, and Broadmoor Asylum was formally opened. All that I desire to say about the local habitation, the exterior, the in terior, the administration, and the inmates of this important and interesting institution may be stated most compendiously in the form of a description of a visit which I paid to it a few days ago, in company with my friend Grice, an official of high standing in the civil service of India, who is now at home on fur lough, and who seeks to divert his thoughts from the unspeakable rupee by plunging into a course of scientific dissipation. We started from Waterloo at 9.38 л. м.. and reached Brackwell in Berkshire a little after eleven. Brackwell is thirty miles from London, and — a fact of some moment to the traveller already suffering from the tedium of the rail way journey — four miles from Broadmoor. A considerate cabman offered to drive us to the asylum and back for ten shillings; but
