established by voluntary subscriptions enter into any agreement with the justices of any county or borough under this Act, nothing in this Act contained shall prevent the reception into the asylum provided by such subscribers and such justices under such agreement, or the discharge therefrom, of so many of any lunatics, other than pauper lunatics, as might have been received into the asylum so established by voluntary subscription if this Act had not been passed.

5. Subscribers to any lunatic asylum authorized to appoint a committee to treat with committee of justices for uniting such asylum with a county or borough asylum.] And be it enacted,1 That it shall be lawful for the major part of the subscribers to any lunatic asylum supported by voluntary subscriptions already established,2 present at any meeting of subscribers to the same, which shall be called together by advertisement in a newspaper commonly circulated in the place where such asylum is situate, for the express purpose of making such election and appointment, to elect and appoint any number of subscribers, not exceeding five, to form a committee to treat and enter into an agreement with the committee or committees of justices of any county or counties, borough or boroughs, elected or appointed as aforesaid, to unite such asylum 4 ported by voluntary subscriptions with an asylum for such county or borough, counties or boroughs, under the provisions and for the purposes of this Act.

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6. Committees of justices and subscribers, if they unite, to enter into an agreement in the form in schedule (A).] And be it enacted, That when two or more committees of justices, so elected or appointed as aforesaid, shall agree to unite, either together, or together and with any committee of such subscribers as aforesaid, for the purposes of this Act, and where any one committee of justices, so elected or appointed as aforesaid, shall agree to unite with any committee of such sub

1 See 9 G. 4, c. 40, s. 5.

2 This appears to mean established prior to the passing of the Act. In the 9 G. 4, c. 40, s. 4, occur the words or intended to be built.

3 i. e. elected by the justices, or appointed by the recorder.

4 This probably means that the subscribers and the county are to unite for the maintenance of one

asylum, and not that two separate asylums are to be united, though certainly the latter is the plain signification of the words in the text, and the form of the agreement set out in the schedule treats of the providing and building of an asylum.

5 See 48 G. 3, c. 96, ss. 3, 4. 55 G. 3, c. 46, s. 10. 9 G. 4, c. 40,

s. 6.

scribers as aforesaid for the purposes of this Act, an agreement shall be entered into and signed by the said several committees, or the major part of such committees respectively, in the form or to the effect set forth in schedule (A) hereunto annexed;1

Which shall bind the counties or boroughs when signed] and such agreement, when signed by the major part of each or every such committee (and not before), shall be binding upon the county or counties, borough or boroughs, and subscribers, for or on behalf of which or whom the committees so signing such agreement shall have been respectively elected or appointed;

Particulars of the agreement as to contribution] and every such agreement shall specify the proportion in which the expenses necessary for carrying into execution the powers and purposes of this Act shall be charged and assessed upon the several counties and boroughs and subscribers so uniting, such proportions, as regards the several counties and boroughs, to be calculated by the said committees of justices in proportion to the population of the said several counties and boroughs as stated in the then last returns made of the same under the authority of parliament, and, as regards the subscribers, to be calculated by the committee of subscribers;2

As to number of committee] and every such agreement shall also specify the numbers of every committee 3 of the county or counties, borough or boroughs, or subscribers, so uniting.

7. Committee of justices to report and deliver a copy of the agreement at the then next sessions.] And be it enacted,4 That whensoever any agreement shall have been so entered into and signed as aforesaid, the committee for each county and borough so uniting shall report the same to the justices of such county or the recorder of such borough at the then next general or quarter sessions, and shall then and there deliver into court a duplicate of the said agreement, to be by the clerk of the peace of the same county or borough entered among the records thereof.

1 There is no exemption from stamps in this Act, therefore this agreement must be stamped.

2 No mode of calculating the proportion to be charged upon the subscribers is set out, and therefore this must be a matter of arrangement. It is stated that it is to be calculated by the committee of subscribers, but they

cannot conclude the other committee by their calculation.

3 It appears by the agreement that this means the committee of visitors.

4 See 48 G. 3, c. 96, s. 5. 9 G. 4, c. 40, s. 7. Quære, whether sect. 28, post, applies to the agreement for union in this case.

8. Justices of every county and borough having a lunatic asylum, but of insufficient accommodation, required to provide an additional asylum or accommodation.] And be it enacted, That the justices of every county and borough which has or shall have an asylum for the pauper lunatics thereof, but which has or shall have more pauper lunatics than such asylum will properly accommodate, and the justices of every county or borough which has or shall have an asylum which any one of Her Majesty's principal Secretaries of State shall, by writing under his hand and seal, declare to be inadequate or unfit for the proper accommodation of the pauper lunatics of such county or borough, shall erect or provide additional buildings or an additional asylum for the pauper lunatics of such county or borough as the said Secretary of State shall direct:

Proviso for increasing a workhouse which is such asylum] Provided always, that in case the asylum so declared inadequate or unfit as aforesaid shall be a workhouse, it shall be lawful for the said Secretary of State, if he shall think fit, upon the application in writing of the guardians or overseers of the union or parish to whom such workhouse shall belong, or of the major part of them, to direct such additional buildings or such additional asylum as aforesaid to be erected or provided by the said guardians or overseers;1

To be an asylum for a county or borough] and every such workhouse which shall be so added to, and every such additional asylum which shall be erected or provided as last aforesaid, shall be and be deemed to be a lunatic asylum for such county or borough, and shall be included in and shall be subject to the provisions of this Act;

How money to be raised for this purpose] and it shall be lawful for the guardians or overseers to whom such direction

1 It will be seen that this provision, which throws upon a union or parish the expense of supplying a lunatic asylum for a county or borough, only applies to a workhouse which was or shall be a county or borough asylum, and declared to be inadequate for such purpose by the Secretary of State. The proceedings cannot take place without the application of the major part of the guardians or overseers of the union or parish for the purpose, and such

application is not very likely to be made. At present there is no union or parish whose workhouse is a county or borough asylum, except in the city of Bristol, in which there is an hospital which has formed part of the workhouse, and is made a lunatic asylum for the county of the city of Bristol by an Act 3 G. 4, c. xxiv., and in the town of Kingstonupon-Hull, the workhouse of which is a county lunatic asylum, by the 5 G. 4, c. xiii.

shall be given, and they are hereby authorized, to apply, or to assess, raise, and levy such sum or sums of money as may be necessary for the purposes aforesaid from such funds, or by such powers, ways, and means, as are now by law belonging or given to or vested in such guardians or overseers specially, or in churchwardens or overseers of the poor generally, in relation to the purchase or hiring of lands, or the purchase, building, hiring, enlarging, or maintaining of workhouses:

Workhouses may be taken for chronic lunatics.] Provided also, that it shall be lawful for the justices of any such county in general or quarter_sessions, or of any borough,2 with the consent of the Poor Law Commissioners for England and Wales, and of the guardians and overseers of the union or parish, to take and use a workhouse for the reception of all or any of the pauper lunatics of such county or borough who may be chronic1 lunatics;

To cease to be workhouses] and every workhouse so taken and used shall thereafter cease to be a workhouse for other purposes whilst so used, and shall be and be deemed for all the purposes of this Act to be a lunatic asylum of such county or borough, and to be included in the provisions of this Act.

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9. The visitors of existing county and borough asylums may unite, under the powers of this Act, with any other county or borough.] And be it enacted, That it shall be lawful for the committee of visitors for the time being of any asylum already erected for any county or borough or united counties or boroughs, and also for the committee of visitors for the time being of any asylum already erected for any county or borough or united counties or boroughs, jointly with any voluntary subscribers, to unite, under the powers of this Act, and in manner hereinafter directed, and either by way of purchase or by payment of any sum in the nature of rent, or otherwise, with any other county or borough, counties

1 This appears to apply to those parishes where there are particular powers given for the raising of money under local Acts.

See as to the providing for chronic lunatics, sect. 17 post, p. 132. 3 Apparently this contemplates a temporary and gratuitous use, inasmuch as sect. 20, post, contains full power for the purchase and sale of a workhouse to the visitors for an asylum.

term chronic lunatics, see Appendix.

5 This section will authorize a county or borough which has not any asylum to unite with another county or asylum which already has an asylum for the joint use of it, or for the providing additional accommodation for the joint use of both.

6 i. e. By agreement and through a committee of justices 4 As to the meaning of the appointed in conformity with s. 2.

or boroughs, or any voluntary subscribers, for the joint use of any asylum already erected, or for the erecting or providing of additional buildings or an additional asylum for the pauper lunatics of such county or counties, borough or boroughs;

Provision for the cost of additional asylum] and in every such case if the said existing asylum shall not afterwards be used by the united county or borough, counties or boroughs jointly, the expenses of and incident to the erecting, providing, and maintaining the said additional buildings or additional asylum shall be charged and assessed upon the several counties, boroughs, and subscribers so uniting as hereinbefore provided in the case of counties and boroughs none of which have an asylum;

Charge in respect of the old asylum] but if the said existing asylum shall afterwards be used by the united county or borough, counties or boroughs jointly, the committees of visitors of the several counties, boroughs, or subscribers, as the case may be, which shall be so united shall fix the sum to be paid by the county or borough, or each of the counties and boroughs, not then having any asylum, towards the expenses then already incurred in erecting or providing such asylum as aforesaid, and the same shall be paid by every such county or borough to the treasurer of such asylum, and shall be raised by such county or borough in the same manner as other monies are hereby directed to be raised by counties and boroughs respectively for the purposes of this Act, and shall be applied by the committee of visitors of the asylum in such manner as such committee shall think fit, according to the provisions and for carrying into effect the purposes of this Act.

Agreement to be entered into and in every case of any such union as last aforesaid an agreement shall be entered into according to the form or to the effect set forth in the said schedule (A), and shall contain the same specifications as hereinbefore required in the case of an agreement for an union by counties and boroughs none of which has an asylum.

10. Boroughs now contributing to a county asylum to be deemed to have an asylum.] And be it enacted, That every borough which is situate within a county having an asylum

1 Although this seems to imply the continuance of the existing asylum, it is evident from what follows that a new asylum may be provided in substitution of the former.

2 See sect. 31, post, which enables it to be sold for the benefit of the county to which it belongs.

3 In sect. 6.

4 In sect. 33.

5 This must be the committee of the visitors of the asylum before the union, who will be solely interested in these monies.

6 In sect. 6.