LUNATIC ASYLUMS (SCOTLAND) BILL. LIST OF CLAUSES. Repeal of recited Acts; sect. 1. Officers to continue till recalled, and orders made under repealed Acts to be good; 2. Interpretation of words; 3. General Board established; 4. Consulting Members of the Board, and their Duties; 5. Members of Board to take oath of office and secrecy; 6. Members of Board not to derive profit for discharging their Duties, except as provided; 7. Powers and meetings of Board; 8 to 12. Appointment and Duties of Secretary, Clerk and Inspector-general; 13 to 16. Oath to be taken by Officers; 17. Sheriff to visit Asylums and report to the Board; 18. Licenses to keep Private Asylums to be granted by the Board, and may be temporarily continued or transferred; 19 to 22. Monies received for Licenses to be deposited in Bank; 23. Payment of Salaries and Expenses; 24. As to the reception and keeping of Lunatics in Licensed Asylums and Houses; 25 to 32. Expense attending the committing and maintenance of Lunatics, how to be borne; 33. Medical attendance upon Private Asylums; 34. Appointment and Duties of Medical Inspectors; 35. Qualification of Medical Persons; 36. Districts for Asylums for Pauper Lunatics fixed, and Appointment and Duties of District Boards; 37 to 39. District Asylums to be provided, and to be under charge of District Boards, and Expense to be defrayed by Assessment; 40 to 52. Charge for Pauper Lunatics, and application of Monies received; 53. District Boards to keep Books; 54. Pauper Lunatics to be detained in District Asylums, and Expense of their Maintenance to be provided for; 55 to 60. Sheriff may commit dangerous Lunatics, and transmit Lunatics to another County; 61, 62. Removal and Liberation of Lunatics; 63 to 65. 223. Pauper Pauper Lunatics to be sent to Asylum of the District, or may be kept in their Parishes; 66, 67. Registers of Lunatics to be kept; 68 to 70. Penalty for maltreating Lunatic; 71. Decision of General Board in case of difference with District Board to be final; 72. Recovery and application of Penalties; 73, 74. Proceedings not to be void for want of form; 75. Powers granted to Sheriffs to be without prejudice to their Powers at Law; 76. Act may be altered or repealed; 77. 5 A BILL To amend the Law of Scotland relative to the Care and [Note. The Words printed in Italics are proposed to be inserted W HEREAS an Act was passed in the fifty-fifth year of Preamble: the reign of his Majesty King GEORGE the Third, inti- 55 G. 3, c. 69. tuled, "An Act to regulate Madhouses in Scotland :" And whereas another Act was passed in the ninth year of the reign 9 G. 4, c. 3ł. of his Majesty King GEORGE the Fourth, intituled, " An Act for altering and amending an Act passed in the fifty-fifth year of the reign of his late Majesty, intituled, An Act to regulate Madhouses in Scotland:"" c. 60. And whereas another Act was passed in the Session of Parliament 4 & 5 Vict. 10 holden in the fourth and fifth years of the reign of Her present Majesty, intituled, "An Act to alter and amend certain Acts regulating Madhouses in Scotland, and to provide for the Custody of dangerous Lunatics:" And whereas it is expedient that the said recited Acts should be 15 repealed, and that more efficient provision should be made for the regulation of Lunatic Asylums, and for securing and providing for the eustody of pauper and dangerous Lunatics in Scotland; Be it Enacted, by The QUEEN's most Excellent MAJESTY, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by 1. recited Acts. Repeal of the the Authority of the same, THAT from and after the First day of January One thousand eight hundred and Forty-nine, the said recited Acts shall be and are hereby repealed. 2. Officers to continue till recalled, and orders made under the repealed Acts to be good. 3. Interpreta tion of words. 5 And be it Enacted, That the Inspectors, resident medical officers, keepers, attendants, and all other officers or servants appointed under or in virtue of the said recited Acts hereby repealed, or any of them, shall continue to discharge the duties of their respective offices until they shall be re-appointed or superseded by the appointment of other persons, officers and servants, to discharge the duties now performed by them; and all licenses heretofore granted under the said recited Acts, 10 or any of them, shall remain in force until the expiration of the periods for which they were respectively granted under the said recited Acts, or until they are revoked under the powers of this Act; and all orders, matters and things granted, made, done or directed to be done in pursuance of the said recited Acts, or any of them, shall be and 15 remain as good, valid and effectual to all intents and purposes as if the said Acts had not been repealed, excepting in so far as such orders, matters or things are expressly made void or affected by this Act; and all fees, charges, liabilities and expenses due, payable or prestable under the said Acts, or any of them, shall be payable and prestable 20 from the same funds and sources as would have been applicable to such payments, and otherwise in the like manner as if the said Acts. had not been repealed. 30 And be it Enacted, That the following words and expressions in this Act shall have the meanings hereby assigned to them, unless 25 there be something in the subject or context repugnant to such construction; (that is to say) the words "the Board" shall mean the General Board hereby established for the superintendence and care of asylums and lunatics under this Act; "Public Asylum" shall mean and include all such hospitals, madhouses or asylums as are established for the custody of lunatics by Act of Parliament or Royal Charter, or under any deed or mortification by which the maker thereof has directed the appropriation of funds to the establishing and maintaining any lunatic asylum or hospital, without any view to any pecuniary gain or profit arising to the establishment or to the trust estate or funds thereof, and also all hospitals, madhouses or asylums into which lunatics committed by order and certificate, as hereinafter provided, cannot be refused access or reception without special cause shown; and also all hospitals, madhouses or asylums established under the authority of this Act for the custody of lunatics; and the words "Private Asylum" shall mean and include all such licensed madhouses or asylums as are established for the reception of lunatics under the provisions of this Act, and kept for the pecuniary gain or profit of the proprietors or keepers thereof or others interested therein, and into which 35 40 ( which the admission of lunatics is a matter of arrangement between the keeper thereof and the party seeking or promoting the reception of the lunatic therein; the words "District Asylum" or "District Asylums" shall mean the asylum of the district described in the 5 Schedule (F.) hereunto annexed within which the asylum shall be situated, or which shall be provided as the asylum of such district under this Act; and the word "Lunatic" shall mean and include all mad or furious or fatuous persons, or persons so diseased or affected in mind as to render them unfit, in the opinion of competent medical per10 sons, to be at large, either as regards their own personal safety and conduct or the safety of the persons and property of others, or of the public; the word "Sheriff" shall mean the Sheriff of and acting in the county of which he is Sheriff, and shall include the Sheriff Substitutes; the words "Sheriff Clerk" shall mean the Sheriff Clerk of the county of 15 which he is Sheriff Clerk, and shall include Steward Clerk; words importing the singular number shall include the plural number, and words importing the plural number shall include the singular number; words importing the masculine gender shall include females; the word "Person" and the word "Owner" shall extend to trustees and to 20 bodies politic or corporate as well as to individuals; the word "Month" shall mean calendar month; the word "Oath" shall 7 ( 25 include affirmation in the case of Quakers, or other declaration or solemnity legally substituted for an oath, in the case of persons exempted by law from taking an oath. 4. And be it Enacted, That a General Board of Directors shall be and General Board is hereby established for carrying into effect the purposes of this Act; established. and the said Board shall consist of the following persons; namely, of a person to be appointed by Her Majesty, who shall be the permanent Chairman of the said Board, and to whom there shall be paid a salary 30 not exceeding Eight hundred Pounds per annum; the Lord Advocate of the for the time being, such Sheriffs being resident in Edinburgh, or if 35 any of the said Sheriffs shall not be resident in Edinburgh, then during the period of such non-residence such other Sheriff of one or other of the counties of Scotland, being resident in Edinburgh, as shall be fixed by One of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State; and to each of the said Sheriffs, so long as he shall be a member of the Board, there shall 40 be paid, in addition to his salary as a Sheriff, an allowance not exceeding One hundred Pounds per annum; and it shall be lawful for Her Majesty to appoint such additional number of persons, not exceeding Two, to be members of the Board, as to Her Majesty may seem proper; and the amount of such salary to the Chairman, and of such allowances to the Sheriffs, shall be fixed by the Commissioners of Her |