Excerpt from Report of the Metropolitan Commissioners in Lunacy to the Lord Chancellor: Presented to Both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty We, the Metropolitan Commissioners in Lunacy, beg to submit to your Lordship the following Report, relating to the several matters entrusted to our care. As our duties have been materially increased, by the provisions of the Act 5 & 6 Vic. c. 87, which have enabled us to inspect the condition of the various public and private Asylums throughout England and Wales, beyond as well as within the limits of the Metropolitan district, we think it right to report to your Lordship the result of our experience, in a more minute and specific way than we have heretofore been accustomed to do. Your Lordship is aware that the legislative provisions now is force relative to Lunatic Asylums in England, are for the most part comprised in the public Acts of 9 Geo. IV. c. 40; 2 & 3 Will. IV. c. 107; and 5 & 6 Vic. c. 87. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

First published in 2006. A private madhouse can be defined as a privately owned establishment for the reception and care of insane persons, conducted as a business proposition for the personal profit of the proprietor or proprietors. The history of such establishments in England and Wales can be traced for a period of over three and a half centuries, from the early seventeenth century up to the present day. This volume is a study of private madhouses in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.