APPENDIX TO CHRONICLE. 



287 



fore, when a person like the de- 

 fendant, who has executed with 

 the highest honour his painful 

 duty, comes before you, you must 

 do him justice. If a verdict can 

 pass against the defendant, mad- 

 ness must stalk at large through 

 our streets, for no person will then 

 keep a respectable private mad- 

 house, and our public establish- 

 ments will not be capable of hold- 

 ing the patients who shall apply. 

 You have already in proof from 

 the witnesses called on the part of 

 the plaintiff, that there never was 

 a man who has conducted his house 

 so well as the defendant ; he is a 

 pattern of humanity, kindness, and 

 affection, to those unfortunate per- 

 sons committed to his care. If per- 

 sons afflicted with this dreadful 

 malady must be removed from the 

 bosom of their families (the last 

 place in which they should be 

 kept, on account of the continued 

 state of irritation in which they 

 must be), it is to the establishment 

 of that most respectable gentleman 

 who sits before me,that every friend 

 would be most anxious to remove 

 them ; for if in any place they can 

 be restored to the exercise of reason, 

 it is in his establishment. The 

 question for you to try is, whether 

 Mr. Warburton, knowing that 

 plaintiff was a perfectly sane man, 

 was induced, with a purpose of 

 obtaining some advantage, to shut 

 him up in this abode. In judging 

 of human actions, it is right to 

 look to motives. What were 

 Mr. Warburton's motives ? Was it 

 to increase his numbers ? No room 

 in his large establishment was at 

 present vacant. Had he many 

 more rooms, and were he able to 

 superintend more patients, his 

 rooms might all be soon filled, and 



many would still want accommoda- 

 tion. Did the plaintiff bring him 

 large profits ? If a man of great 

 wealth had a troublesome heir, or 

 a troublesome wife, I can conceive 

 that bad men might be found who 

 for an immense sum, would lock 

 up a sane wife or a sane heir. The 

 plaintiff, a clergyman, with a small 

 living, a wife and seven children, 

 was confined, though sane, by the 

 defendant ! What sum do you 

 think was sufficient to satisfy the 

 cupidity of this vile bad man ? 

 100/. per annum, and that ill paid. 

 The defendant kept the plaintiff, 

 although the annual stipend was ill 

 paid, because Mrs. Chawner, the 

 exemplary excellent wife of the 

 plaintiff, begged and entreated that 

 the humane Mr. Warburton, would 

 keep hira in the kind manner in 

 which he had been kept, since she 

 could not have thehappinessot keep- 

 ing him at home. Even from the 

 evidence given by the discarded 

 servants of Mr. Warburton, it ap- 

 peared that they never saw any 

 coercion used, not even the often 

 salutary restraint of a strait waist- 

 coat : he was never manacled or 

 chained — no, he was at liberty to 

 go about as he pleased, as free as 

 the air he breathed, except that he 

 could not go out of the gafes. The 

 jury had not now to learn, that ir- 

 ritation was the worst, and placidi- 

 ty was the best state for a person 

 labouring under lunacy; where 

 the disease was reduced by regi- 

 men, and irritation had ceased, 

 the patient was free from restraint; 

 when the paroxysm came on, he 

 was restrained, and liberty again 

 dawned upon him when the pa- 

 roxysm ceased. Was he kept from 

 his friends ? Had he no access to 

 the commissioners of lunacy, whose 



