Middle-Class Hospitals for the Insane

Extract

A little more than a year ago a public meeting was announced as having taken place in this metropolis for the purpose of establishing a “Benevolent Asylum for the Middle Classes.” Though many were without doubt pleased with the project of so useful an undertaking, it appears that the vast majority of the public regarded it with great indifference. For, from time to time, an advertisement in the papers—a doleful and undignified document—has complained of the want of support, begged for further aid, and reminded lately the public that the amount subscribed for the Hartley Colliery Fund over and above what was wanted, would have been more than sufficient to have started the benevolent asylum. The public indifference must be the result of public ignorance; for we well know that when the heart of the country is touched, its sympathy and help are given in a profuse and practical manner. To elicit such aid, however, there must be a reasonable and well understood end in view; and the question is, whether the promoters of this proposed asylum have given a clear idea of what they want, of what they propose to do, and of the way they propose to do it.