Report of the Treasurer's Committee, to the Town-Council of Edinburgh, on remit to consider and report as to the best means of obtaining immediate accommodation for pauper lunatics : with an appendix of documents, containing the royal warrant, parliamentary grant, &c. &c.
- Date:
- 1837
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report of the Treasurer's Committee, to the Town-Council of Edinburgh, on remit to consider and report as to the best means of obtaining immediate accommodation for pauper lunatics : with an appendix of documents, containing the royal warrant, parliamentary grant, &c. &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![30 enlarged views of expediency, justice, and philanthropy, has been suffered to exist in the near neighbourhood of, and in connection with, the city of Edinburgh,' three of the Council of the City being ex officio Managers, without affording any relief, or conferring any bene- fit on the humbler classes of the population, although there have for a number of years existed, in other towns in Scotland, Lunatic Asylums, conducted on the most equitable principles and enlight- ened views. V. Resolved, That the simple fact of the minimum board in the Establishment at Morniiigside being £55, 18s. per annum, which, with the exception of a few recent instances, is the lowest rate of admission, is of itself sufficient to prove that this Institution has hitherto been in name only a public charity; and the large and ac- cumulating profits that must have been realized from the rates of board paid by inmates for such a period of years, is an aggravation of the injury done the relatives of the insane poor, to whom equal justice is not done, in alleviating the evils of mental disease, accom- panied by poverty, which unhappily prevails to a great extent. VI. Resolved, That the care evinced by his Majesty’s Govern- ment in framing the Royal Charter, incorporating the contributors to the Edinburgh Lunatic Asylum into one body corporate, in which charter, dated 1 ] th April 1807, the heads of all the public bodies connected with the city and county, and tlieir successors in office, are expressly named as Managers of this charity; and the continued recurrence of the words, “ Charitable institution—charitable design —said charity—charitable end—charitable design foresaid,” and similar phrases which run through the whole document, demonstrate that it was for the benefit of the poor, and not of the rich, that Go- vernment granted the sum of two thousand pounds, and the charter of incorporation, to the Managers. i VII. Resolved, therefore. That this Council will unite with any portion of their fellow-citizens, in forthwith adopting the most speedy and effective measures to obtain redress of this grievance, and to have the Edinburgh Lunatic Asylum conducted as it ought to be, not only on the best plan and principles suggested bv the present improved state of medical science, but also with an especial view to the immediate application of the surplus funds of the Insti- tution to the relief of the insane poor. VIII. Resolved, further. That it be remitted to the Treasurer’s Committee, with the addition of Councillor Grant, to consider and report, with the least possible delay, the best means of obtaining immediate accommodation for Pauper Lunatics ; and that the Lord Provost be solicited to call a Public Meeting of the Contributors to the Asylum at Morningside, so soon as the Report of the Treasurer of the Establishment is printed and published.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21971286_0041.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
