Lunacy Act, 1890

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LUNACY ACT 1890

CHAPTER V.

An Act to consolidate certain of the Enactments respecting Lunatics. [29th March 1890.]

Preliminary.

Short title.

1. This Act may be cited as the Lunacy Act, 1890.

Extent of Act.

2. Save as in this Act otherwise expressly provided, this Act shall not extend to Scotland or Ireland.

[S. 3 rep. 8 Edw. 7. c. 49 (S.L.R.).]

Part I.

Reception of Lunatics.

Reception Orders on Petition.

Private patients not found lunatic by inquisition to be received only under order of judicial authority.

Forms 1, 2, 8.

4.—(1) Subject to the exceptions in this Act mentioned, a person not being a pauper or a lunatic so found by inquisition, shall not be received and detained as a lunatic in an institution for lunatics, or as a single patient, unless under a reception order made by the judicial authority herein-after mentioned. A relative of the person applying for an order under this section or of the lunatic, or of the husband or wife of the lunatic, shall not be capable of making such order.

(2) The order shall be obtained upon a private application by petition accompanied by a statement of particulars and by two medical certificates on separate sheets of paper.

Petition for reception order.

Form 1.

Form 2.

5.—(1) The petition shall be presented, if possible, by the husband or wife or by a relative of the alleged lunatic. If not so presented it shall contain a statement of the reasons why the petition is not so presented and of the connexion of the petitioner with the alleged lunatic, and the circumstances under which he presents the petition.

(2) No person shall present a petition unless he is at least twenty-one years of age and has within fourteen days before the presentation of the petition personally seen the alleged lunatic.

(3) The petitioner shall in the petition undertake that he will personally, or by someone specially appointed by him, visit the patient once at least in every six months; and the undertaking shall be recited in the order.

(4) The petition shall be signed by the petitioner and the statement of particulars by the person making the statement.

Procedure upon petition for a reception order.

Form 3.

6.—(1) Upon the presentation of the petition the judicial authority shall consider the allegations in the petition and statement of particulars and the evidence of lunacy appearing by the medical certificates, and whether it is necessary for him personally to see and examine the alleged lunatic; and, if he is satisfied that an order may properly be made forthwith, he may make the same accordingly; or, if not so satisfied, he shall appoint as early a time as practicable, not being more than seven days after the presentation of the petition, for the consideration thereof; and he may make such further or other inquiries of or concerning the alleged lunatic as he may think fit. Notice of the time and place appointed for the consideration of the petition (unless personally given to the petitioner) shall be sent to the petitioner by post in a prepaid registered letter addressed to him at his address as given in the petition.

(2) The judicial authority, if not satisfied with the evidence of lunacy appearing by the medical certificates, may, if he thinks it necessary so to do, visit the alleged lunatic at the place where he may happen to be.

(3) The petition shall be considered in private, and no one except the petitioner, the alleged lunatic (unless the judicial authority shall in his discretion otherwise order), any one person appointed by the alleged lunatic for that purpose, and the persons signing the medical certificates accompanying the petition, shall, without the leave of the judicial authority, be present at the consideration thereof.

(4) At the time appointed for consideration of the petition the judicial authority may make an order thereon or dismiss the same, or, if he thinks fit, may adjourn the same for any period not exceeding fourteen days for further evidence or information, and he may give notice to such persons as he thinks fit of the adjourned consideration, and summon any persons to attend before him.

(5) Every judicial authority, and all persons admitted to be present at the consideration of any petition for a reception order, or otherwise having official cognisance of the fact that a petition has been presented, except the alleged lunatic and the person appointed by the alleged lunatic as aforesaid, shall be bound to keep secret all matters and documents which may come to his or their knowledge by reason thereof, except when required to divulge the same by lawful authority.

Dismissal of petition.

7.—(1) If the petition is dismissed, the judicial authority shall deliver to the petitioner a statement in writing under his hand of his reasons for dismissing the same, and shall send a copy of such statement to the Commissioners and shall also, where the alleged lunatic is detained under an urgency order, send notice by post or otherwise to the person in whose charge the alleged lunatic is, that the petition has been dismissed.

(2) Any judicial authority making or refusing a reception order, shall, if so required by the Commissioners, give to them all such information as they may require as to the circumstances under which the order was made or refused.

(3) The Commissioners may communicate such information as they think proper, on the dismissal of the petition or the release of the alleged lunatic, to him or to any person who may satisfy them that he is a proper person to receive the information.

(4) If after a petition has been dismissed another petition is presented as to the same alleged lunatic, the person presenting such other petition, so far as he has any knowledge or information with regard to the previous petition and its dismissal, shall state the facts relating thereto in his petition, and shall obtain from the Commissioners at his own expense, and present with his petition, a copy of the statement sent to them of the reasons for dismissing the previous petition, and, if he wilfully omits to comply with this sub-section, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Right of lunatic to be examined by judicial authority.

Form 5.

Form 6.

Form 7.

8.—(1) When a lunatic has been received as a private patient under an order of a judicial authority, without a statement in the order that the patient has been personally seen by such judicial authority, the patient shall have the right to be taken before or visited by a judicial authority, other than the judicial authority who made the order, unless the medical officer of the institution, or, in the case of a single patient, his medical attendant, within twenty-four hours after reception, in a certificate signed and sent to the Commissioners, states that the exercise of such right would be prejudicial to the patient.

(2) Where no such certificate has been signed and sent, the manager of the institution in which the patient is, or the person having charge of him as a single patient, shall, within twenty-four hours after reception, give to the patient a notice in writing of his right under this section, and shall ascertain whether he desires to exercise the right; and if he, within seven days after his reception, expresses his desire to exercise the right, such manager or person shall procure him to sign a notice of such desire, and shall forthwith transmit it by post in a prepaid registered letter to the judicial authority, who is to exercise the jurisdiction under this section, or to the justices clerk of the petty sessional division or borough, where the lunatic is, to be by him transmitted to such judicial authority, and the judicial authority shall thereupon arrange, as soon as conveniently may be, either to visit the patient or to have the patient brought before him by the manager or person as the judicial authority may think fit.

(3) The judicial authority shall be entitled, if he desires so to do, to see the medical certificates and any other documents, upon the consideration of which the reception order was made, and shall after personally seeing the patient send to the Commissioners a report, and the Commissioners shall take such steps as may be necessary to give effect to the report.

(4) For the purposes of this section the jurisdiction shall be exercised by any judicial authority having authority to act in the place where the person received is, and not being the judicial authority who made the reception order; and arrangements shall for that purpose from time to time be made amongst themselves by the persons having such authority as aforesaid.

(5) If any manager of an institution for lunatics, or any person having charge of a single patient, omits to perform any duty imposed upon him by this section, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

The Judicial Authority defined.

Judicial authority defined.

9.—(1) The powers of the judicial authority under this Act shall be exercised by a justice of the peace specially appointed as herein-after provided, or a judge of county courts, or magistrate . . . .

(2) Every judicial authority shall, in the exercise of the jurisdiction conferred by this Act, have the same jurisdiction and power as regards the summoning and examination of witnesses, the administration of oaths, and otherwise, as if he were acting in the exercise of his ordinary jurisdiction, and shall be assisted, if he so requires, by the same officers as if he were so acting, and their assistance under this Act shall be considered in fixing their remuneration.

(3) A judge of county courts and magistrate shall not be required to exercise any powers under this Act so as to interfere with or delay the exercise of his ordinary jurisdiction.

Appointment of justices to make reception orders.

10. [¹] —(1) The justices of every county and quarter sessions borough, shall annually appoint out of their own body as many fit and proper persons as they may deem necessary to exercise . . . . . . the powers conferred by this Act upon the judicial authority. In making such appointments the justices of every county shall have regard to the convenience of the inhabitants of each petty sessional division thereof.

(2) The annual appointments under this section shall be made by justices of a county at their Michaelmas quarter sessions, and by justices of a borough at special sessions to be held in the month of October.

(3) If in any year such appointments are not made, it shall be lawful for the Lord Chancellor, by writing under his hand, to make the same; and if, on any representation made to him that the number of justices so appointed for any county or borough is at any time insufficient, the Lord Chancellor is satisfied that such representation is well founded, he shall have power to appoint, by writing under his hand, any other justices of such county or borough to act, until the next Michaelmas quarter or special sessions, with the justices so appointed.

(4) If in the case of a borough or place not having a separate quarter sessions, representation is made to the Lord Chancellor that public inconvenience is likely to result, unless power is given to the justices of such borough or place to exercise . the powers conferred by this Act upon the judicial authority, it shall be lawful for the Lord Chancellor, from time to time, or with or without a fresh representation, to appoint, by writing under his hand, one or more of the justices of such borough or place to exercise during such time as the Lord Chancellor thinks fit the powers aforesaid, together with any other specially appointed justices acting therein.

(5) In the case of the death, absence, inability, or refusal to act of any justice appointed under this section, the justices of the county or borough, or the Lord Chancellor, as the case may be, may appoint a justice to act in his place. Such appointment may be made by justices of a county at any quarter sessions, and by justices of a borough at special sessions to be held at the same time as any quarter sessions.

(6) All appointments of justices under this section shall be recorded by the clerk of the peace of the county or borough, or in the case of a borough or place not having a separate quarter sessions, by the clerk of the justices, and it shall be the duty of every such clerk to publish the names of the justices so appointed in each petty sessional division of the county and otherwise for the information of all persons interested. In the case of quarter sessions boroughs, the clerk to the justices making the appointment shall forthwith notify the same to the clerk of the peace of the borough.

Urgency Orders.

Urgency orders.

Forms 4, 8, 9.

Form 2.

11.—(1) In cases of urgency where it is expedient, either for the welfare of a person (not a pauper) alleged to be a lunatic, or for the public safety, that the alleged lunatic should be forthwith placed under care and treatment, he may be received and detained in an institution for lunatics, or as a single patient upon an urgency order, made (if possible) by the husband or wife or by a relative of the alleged lunatic, accompanied by one medical certificate.

(2) An urgency order may be signed before or after the medical certificate.

(3) If an urgency order is not signed by the husband or wife or by a relative of the alleged lunatic, the order shall contain a statement of the reasons why the same is not so signed and of the connexion with the alleged lunatic of the person signing the order, and the circumstances under which he signs the same.

(4) No person shall sign an urgency order unless he is at least twenty-one years of age and has within two days before the date of the order personally seen the alleged lunatic.

(5) An urgency order may be made as well after as before a petition for a reception order has been presented. An urgency order, if made before a petition has been presented, shall be referred to in the petition, and if made after the petition has been presented, a copy thereof shall forthwith be sent by the petitioner to the judicial authority to whom the petition has been presented.

(6) An urgency order shall remain in force for seven days from its date; or if a petition for a reception order is pending, then until the petition is finally disposed of.

(7) An urgency order shall have subjoined or annexed thereto a statement of particulars.

Reception after Inquisition.

Lunatics so found by inquisition.

12. A lunatic so found by inquisition may be received in an institution for lunatics or as a single patient upon an order signed by the committee of the person of the lunatic, and having annexed thereto an office copy of the order appointing the committee, or if no such committee has been appointed, upon an order signed by a Master.

Summary Reception Orders.

Lunatics not under proper care and control or cruelly treated or neglected.

13.—(1.) Every constable, relieving officer, and overseer of a parish, who has knowledge that any person within the district or parish of the constable, relieving officer, or overseer, who is not a pauper and not wandering at large, is deemed to be a lunatic and is not under proper care and control, or is cruelly treated or neglected by any relative or other person having the care or charge of him, shall within three days after obtaining such knowledge give information thereof upon oath to a justice being a judicial authority under this Act.

(2) Any such justice upon the information on oath of any person whomsoever, that a person . not a pauper and not wandering at large, is deemed to be a lunatic and is not under proper care and control, or is cruelly treated or neglected as aforesaid, may himself visit the alleged lunatic, and shall, whether making such visit or not, direct and authorise any two medical practitioners whom he thinks fit to visit and examine the alleged lunatic and to certify their opinion as to his mental state, and the justice shall proceed in the same manner so far as possible, and have as to the alleged lunatic the same powers, as if a petition for a reception order had been presented by the person by whom the information with regard to the alleged lunatic has been sworn.

Form 15.

(3) If upon the certificates of the medical practitioners who examine the alleged lunatic, or after such other and further inquiry as the justice thinks necessary, he is satisfied that the alleged lunatic is a lunatic, and is not under proper care and control, or is cruelly treated or neglected by any relative or other person having the care or charge of him, and that he is a proper person to be taken charge of and detained under care and treatment, the justice may, by order, direct the lunatic to be received and detained in any institution for lunatics to which, if a pauper, he might be sent under this Act, and the constable, relieving officer, or overseer upon whose information the order has been made, or any constable whom the justice may require so to do, shall forthwith convey the lunatic to the institution named in the order.

Notice to be given of pauper lunatic who ought to be sent to an asylum.

14.—(1) Every medical officer of a union who has knowledge that a pauper resident within the district of the officer is or is deemed to be a lunatic and a proper person to be sent to an asylum, shall, within three days after obtaining such knowledge, give notice thereof in writing to the relieving officer of the district, or, if there is no such officer, to an overseer of the parish where the pauper resides.

(2) Every relieving officer and every overseer of a parish of which there is no relieving officer, who respectively have knowledge, either by notice from a medical officer or otherwise, that any pauper resident within the district or parish of the relieving officer or overseer is deemed to be a lunatic, shall, within three days after obtaining such knowledge, give notice thereof to a justice having jurisdiction in the place where the pauper resides.

(3) A justice, upon receiving such notice, shall by order require the relieving officer or overseer giving the notice, to bring the alleged lunatic before him or some other justice having jurisdiction in the place where the pauper resides at such time and place within three days from the time of the notice to the justice as shall be appointed by the order.

Lunatic wandering at large to be brought before a justice.

Form 12.

15.—(1) Every constable and relieving officer and every overseer of a parish who has knowledge that any person (whether a pauper or not) wandering at large within the district or parish of the constable, relieving officer, or overseer is deemed to be a lunatic, shall immediately apprehend and take the alleged lunatic, or cause him to be apprehended and taken, before a justice.

(2) Any justice, upon the information upon oath of any person that a person wandering at large within the limits of his jurisdiction is deemed to be a lunatic, may by order require a constable, relieving officer, or overseer of the district or parish where the alleged lunatic is, to apprehend him, and bring him before the justice making the order, or any justice having jurisdiction where the alleged lunatic is.

Lunatic brought before a justice may be sent to an institution for lunatics.

Form 8.

16. The justice before whom a pauper alleged to be a lunatic or an alleged lunatic wandering at large is brought under this Act shall call in a medical practitioner, and shall examine the alleged lunatic, and make such inquiries as he thinks advisable, and if upon such examination or other proof the justice is satisfied in the first-mentioned case that the alleged lunatic is a lunatic and a proper person to be detained, and, in the secondly mentioned case, that the alleged lunatic is a lunatic, and was wandering at large, and is a proper person to be detained, and, if in each of the foregoing cases the medical practitioner who has been called in signs a medical certificate with regard to the lunatic, the justice may by order direct the lunatic to be received and detained in the institution for lunatics named in the order, and the relieving officer, overseer, or constable who brought the lunatic before the justice, or in the case of a lunatic wandering at large, any constable who may by the justice be required so to do, shall forthwith convey the lunatic to such institution.

Power to examine alleged lunatic at his own abode or elsewhere.

17. Where, under this Act, notice has been given to, or an information upon oath laid before a justice that a pauper resident within the limits of his jurisdiction is deemed to be a lunatic, and a proper person to be sent to an asylum, or that a person, whether a pauper or not, wandering at large within the limits aforesaid, is deemed to be a lunatic, such justice may examine the alleged lunatic at his own house or elsewhere, and may proceed in all respects as if the alleged lunatic had been brought before him.

When lunatic may be treated as a pauper.

18. A justice shall not sign an order for the reception of a person as a pauper lunatic into an institution for lunatics, or workhouse, unless he is satisfied that the alleged pauper is either in receipt of relief, or in such circumstances as to require relief for his proper care. If it appears by the order that the justice is so satisfied, the lunatic shall be deemed to be a pauper chargeable to the union, county, or borough properly liable for his relief. A person who is visited by a medical officer of the union, at the expense of the union, is, for the purposes of this section, to be deemed to be in receipt of relief.

Suspension of removal under reception order.

19.—(1) A justice making an order for the reception of a lunatic otherwise than upon petition, in this Act called a “summary reception order,” may suspend the execution of the order for such period not exceeding fourteen days as he thinks fit, and in the meantime may give such directions or make such arrangements for the proper care and control of the lunatic as he considers proper.

(2) If a medical practitioner who examines a lunatic as to whom a summary reception order has been made, certifies in writing that the lunatic is not in a fit state to be removed, the removal shall be suspended until the same or some other medical practitioner certifies in writing that the lunatic is fit to be removed, and every medical practitioner who has certified that the lunatic is not in a fit state to be removed shall, as soon as in his judgment the lunatic is in a fit state to be removed, be bound to certify accordingly.

Removal of lunatic to workhouse in urgent cases.

20. If a constable, relieving officer, or overseer is satisfied that it is necessary for the public safety or the welfare of an alleged lunatic with regard to whom it is his duty to take any proceedings under this Act, that the alleged lunatic should, before any such proceedings can be taken, be placed under care and control, the constable, relieving officer, or overseer may remove the alleged lunatic to the workhouse of the union in which the alleged lunatic is, and the master of the workhouse shall, unless there is no proper accommodation in the workhouse for the alleged lunatic, receive and relieve, and detain the alleged lunatic therein, but no person shall be so detained for more than three days, and before the expiration of that time, the constable, relieving officer, or overseer shall take such proceedings with regard to the alleged lunatic as are required by this Act.

Temporary removal of lunatic to workhouse under order of justice.

21.—(1) In any case where a summary reception order might be made, any justice, if satisfied that it is expedient for the welfare of the lunatic, or for the public safety, that the lunatic should forthwith be placed under care and control, and if it appears to him that there is proper accommodation for the lunatic in the workhouse of the union in which the lunatic is, may make an order for taking the lunatic to and receiving him in that workhouse.

(2) In any case where a summary reception order has been made, an order under this section may be made to provide for the detention of the lunatic until he can be removed.

(3) An order under this section shall not authorise the detention of a lunatic in a workhouse for more than fourteen days, after which period such detention shall not be lawful, except in accordance with the provisions of this Act as to the detention of lunatics in workhouses.

(4) An order under this section may be made by any justice having jurisdiction in the place where the lunatic is.

Power to allow a relation or friend to take charge of a lunatic.

22. In the case of a lunatic as to whom a summary reception order may be made nothing in this Act shall prevent a relation or friend from retaining or taking the lunatic under his own care if a justice having jurisdiction to make the order, or the visitors of the asylum in which the lunatic is or is intended to be placed, shall be satisfied that proper care will be taken of the lunatic.

Reception Order by two Commissioners.

Commissioners may send pauper lunatic to an institution for lunatics.

Form 8.

23.—(1) Any two or more Commissioners may visit a pauper lunatic or alleged lunatic not in an institution for lunatics, or workhouse, and may, if they think fit, call in a medical practitioner.

(2) If the medical practitioner signs a medical certificate with regard to the lunatic, and the Commissioners are satisfied that the pauper is a lunatic, and a proper person to be detained, they may by order direct the lunatic to be received in an institution for lunatics, and the relieving officer of the district or any constable who may by them be required so to do shall forthwith convey the lunatic to such institution.

Lunatics in Workhouses.

Lunatics in workhouses.

Form 10.

Form 11.

Forms 8, 10.

30 & 31 Vict. c. 6.

25 & 26 Vict. c. 111.

24. [¹] —(1) Except in the cases mentioned in this Act, no person shall be allowed to remain in a workhouse as a lunatic unless the medical officer of the workhouse certifies in writing—

(a) That such person is a lunatic, with the grounds for the opinion; and

(b) that he is a proper person to be allowed to remain in a workhouse as a lunatic; and

(c) that the accommodation in the workhouse is sufficient for his proper care and treatment, separate from the inmates of the workhouse not lunatics, unless the medical officer certifies that the lunatic’s condition is such that it is not necessary for the convenience of the lunatic or of the other inmates that he should be kept separate.

(2) A certificate under this section shall be sufficient authority for detaining the lunatic therein named against his will in the workhouse for fourteen days from its date.

(3) No lunatic shall be detained against his will or allowed to remain in a workhouse for more than fourteen days from the date of a certificate under this section without an order under the hand of a justice having jurisdiction in the place where the workhouse is situate.

(4) The order in the last preceding sub-section mentioned may be made upon the application of a relieving officer of the union to which the workhouse belongs, supported by a medical certificate under the hand of a medical practitioner, not being an officer of the workhouse, and by the certificate under the hand of the medical officer of the workhouse herein-before mentioned.

(5) The guardians of the union to which the workhouse belongs shall pay such reasonable remuneration as they think fit to the medical practitioner who, not being an officer of the workhouse, examines a person for the purpose of a certificate under this section.

(6) If, in the case of a lunatic being in a workhouse, the medical officer thereof does not sign such certificate as in sub-section one of this section mentioned, or if at or before the expiration of fourteen days from the date of the certificate an order is not made under the hand of a justice for the detention of the lunatic in the workhouse, or, if after such an order has been made, the lunatic ceases to be a proper person to be detained in a workhouse, the medical officer of the workhouse shall forthwith give notice in writing to a relieving officer of the union to which the workhouse belongs . . . ., and thereupon the like proceedings shall be taken by the relieving officer and all other persons for the purpose of removing the lunatic to an asylum, and within the same time, as by this Act provided in the case of a pauper deemed to be a lunatic and a proper person to be sent to an asylum, and, pending such proceedings, the lunatic may be detained in the workhouse.

(7) In the case of a lunatic in an asylum provided for reception and relief of the insane under the Metropolitan Poor Act, 1867, notices to be given to and proceedings to be taken by a relieving officer shall be given to and taken by one of the officers of the asylum to be nominated for the purpose by the managers of the asylum district.

(8) As regards every pauper in a workhouse at the date of the commencement of this Act, as to whom a certificate has been signed under section twenty of the Lunacy Acts Amendment Act, 1862, no certificate or order of a justice under this section shall be required.

Power to send discharged pauper not recovered to a workhouse.

25. Where a pauper lunatic is discharged from an institution for lunatics, and the medical officer of the institution is of opinion that the lunatic has not recovered and is a proper person to be kept in a workhouse as a lunatic, the medical officer shall certify such opinion, and the lunatic may thereupon be received and detained against his will in a workhouse without further order if the medical officer of the workhouse certifies in writing that the accommodation in the workhouse is sufficient for the lunatic’s proper care and treatment, separate from the inmates of the workhouse not lunatics, or that the lunatic’s condition is such that it is not necessary for the convenience of the lunatic, or of the other inmates, that he should be kept separate.

Chronic lunatics may be received in workhouses in certain cases.

26.—(1) The visitors of any asylum may, with the consent of the Local Government Board and the Commissioners, and subject to such regulations as they respectively prescribe, make arrangements with the guardians of any union for the reception into the workhouse of any chronic lunatics, not being dangerous, who are in the asylum and have been selected and certified by the manager of the asylum as proper to be removed to the workhouse.

(2) Every lunatic received in a workhouse under this section shall, while he remains there, continue a patient on the books of the asylum for the purposes of this Act so far as it relates to lunatics removed to asylums.

Institutions in which Lunatics may be received.

Institutions to which lunatics may be removed.

27.—(1) Subject to the restrictions in this section mentioned, every summary reception order, and every reception order made by two or more Commissioners, may authorise the reception of the lunatic named in the order not only into an asylum of the county or borough in which the place from which the lunatic is sent is situate, but also into any other institution for lunatics.

(2) A lunatic shall not under any such order be sent elsewhere than to an asylum of the county or borough in which the place from which he is sent is situate, unless there is no such asylum, or there is a deficiency of room, or there are some special circumstances by reason whereof the lunatic cannot conveniently be taken to such asylum, and the deficiency of room or special circumstances shall be stated in the order.

(3) [¹] A pauper lunatic shall not be received under an order into any asylum other than an asylum belonging wholly or in part to the county or borough in which the place from which the lunatic is sent or the parish in which he is adjudged to be settled is situate, unless there is a subsisting contract for the reception of lunatics of such county or borough therein, or such borough otherwise contributes to the asylum into which the pauper is to be received, except the order is endorsed by a visitor of that asylum.

(4) The manager of a hospital or licensed house shall not be bound to receive any lunatic under any such order except in pursuance of a subsisting contract.

Requirements of Reception Orders and Medical Certificates.

Medical certificates.

Form 9.

28.—(1) Every medical certificate under this Act shall be made and signed by a medical practitioner.

(2) Every medical certificate upon which a reception order is founded shall state the facts upon which the certifying medical practitioner has formed his opinion that the alleged lunatic is a lunatic, distinguishing facts observed by himself from facts communicated by others; and a reception order shall not be made upon a certificate founded only upon facts communicated by others.

(3) The medical certificate accompanying an urgency order shall contain a statement that it is expedient for the welfare of the alleged lunatic or for the public safety that he should be forthwith placed under care and treatment, with the reasons for such statement.

(4) Every medical certificate made under and for the purposes of this Act shall be evidence of the facts therein appearing and of the judgment therein stated to have been formed by the certifying medical practitioners on such facts, as if the matters therein appearing had been veried on oath.

Time and manner of medical examination of lunatic.

29.—(1) A reception order shall not be made unless the medical practitioner who signs the medical certificate, or where two certificates are required, each medical practitioner who signs a certificate, has personally examined the alleged lunatic in the case of an order upon petition not more than seven clear days before the date of the presentation of the petition, and in all other cases not more than seven clear days before the date of the order.

(2) Where two medical certificates are required, a reception order shall not be made unless each medical practitioner signing a certificate has examined the alleged lunatic separately from the other.

(3) In the case of an urgency order, the lunatic shall not be received under the order unless it appears by the medical certificate accompanying the order that the certifying medical practitioner has personally examined the alleged lunatic not more than two clear days before his reception.

Persons disqualified for signing certificates.

30. A medical certificate accompanying a petition for a reception order or accompanying an urgency order shall not be signed by the petitioner or person signing the urgency order, or by the husband or wife, father or father-in-law, mother or mother-in-law, son or son-in-law, daughter or daughter-in-law, brother or brother-in-law, sister or sister-in-law, partner or assistant of such petitioner or person.

Usual medical attendant to sign medical certificate in case of private patient, if possible.

31. One of the medical certificates accompanying a petition for a reception order shall, whenever practicable, be under the hand of the usual medical attendant, if any, of the alleged lunatic. If for any reason it is not practicable to obtain a certificate from such usual medical attendant, the reason shall be stated in writing by the petitioner to the judicial authority to whom the petition is presented, and such statement shall be deemed to be part of the petition.

Patients not to be received under certificates by interested persons.

32.—(1) No person shall be received or detained as a lunatic in any institution for lunatics, or as a single patient, where any certificate accompanying the reception order has been signed by any of the following persons:—

(a) The manager of the institution or the person who is to have charge of the single patient:

(b) Any person interested in the payments on account of the patient:

(d) The husband or wife, father or father-in-law, mother or mother-in-law, son or son-in-law, daughter or daughter-in-law, brother or brother-in-law, sister or sister-in-law, the partner or assistant of any of the foregoing persons.

(2) Neither of the persons signing the medical certificate in support of a petition for a reception order shall be the father or father-in-law, mother or mother-in-law, son or son-in-law, daughter or daughter-in-law, brother or brother-in-law, sister or sister-in-law, or the partner or assistant, of the other of them.

(3) No person shall be received as a lunatic in a hospital under an order made on the application of, or under a certificate signed by, a member of the managing committee of the hospital.

Commissioners and visitors not to sign certificates.

33. A medical practitioner who is a Commissioner or a visitor shall not sign any certificate for the reception of a patient into a hospital or licensed house, unless he is directed to visit the patient by a judicial authority under this Act, or by the Lord Chancellor, or a Secretary of State, or a committee appointed by a judge in lunacy.

Amendment of orders and certificates.

34.—(1) If an order or certificate for the reception of a lunatic is, after such reception, found to be in any respect incorrect or defective, such order or certificate may, within fourteen days next after such reception, be amended by the person who signed the same. No amendment shall be allowed unless the same receives the sanction of the Commissioners, or of some one of them, and (in the case of a private patient) the consent of the judicial authority by whom the order for the reception of the lunatic may have been signed.

(2) If the Commissioners deem any such certificate to be incorrect or defective, they may, by a direction in writing, addressed to the manager of the institution for lunatics, or to the person having the charge of a single patient, require the same to be amended by the person who signed the same, and if the same be not duly amended to their satisfaction within fourteen days next after the reception of the patient, the Commissioners, or any two of them, may, if they think fit, make an order for the patient’s discharge.

(3) Every order and certificate amended under this section shall take effect as if the amendment had been contained therein when it was signed.

Authority for reception.

35.—(1) A reception order, if the same appears to be in conformity with this Act, shall be sufficient authority for the petitioner or any person authorised by him, or in the case of an order not made upon petition for the person authorised so to do by the person making the order, to take the lunatic and convey him to the place mentioned in such order and for his reception and detention therein, and the order may be acted on without further evidence of the signature or of the jurisdiction of the person making the order.

(2) In the case of a reception order made upon petition the order, together with the petition, statement of particulars, and medical certificates upon which the order was made, shall be delivered or sent by post to the person on whose petition the order was made, and shall by him or his agent be delivered to the manager of the institution for lunatics in which, or to the person by whom, the lunatic is to be received.

Fresh order and certificates not to be required in certain cases.

36.—(1) Where a reception order has been made, and the execution of the order has been suspended, or the lunatic named in the order has been temporarily taken to a workhouse under the provisions of this Act, he may be received in the institution for lunatics named in the order at any time within fourteen days after the date of the reception order.

(2) If the removal of the lunatic has been suspended by reason of a medical certificate that the lunatic is not in a fit state for removal, the lunatic may be received in the institution for lunatics named in the order within three days after the date of a medical certificate that the lunatic is in a fit state to be removed.

(3) In all other cases a reception order shall cease to be of any force unless the lunatic has been received thereunder before the expiration of seven clear days from its date.

Order and certificate to remain in force in certain cases.

37.—(1) An order for the reception of a patient as a pauper shall extend to authorise his detention though it may afterwards appear that he is entitled to be classified as a private patient, and an order required for the reception of a private patient shall authorise his detention although it may afterwards appear that he ought to be classified as a pauper patient.

(2) If a patient is removed temporarily under the provisions of this Act from the place in which he is confined, or is transferred from one place of confinement to another, the original order and certificate or certificates upon which he was received shall remain in force.

Duration of Reception Orders.

Duration of reception orders.

38.—(1) Every reception order . shall expire at the end of one year from its date . unless . continued as herein-after provided.

(2) In the case of any institution for lunatics the Commissioners may by order under their seal direct that the reception orders of patients detained therein shall, unless continued as herein-after provided, expire on any quarterly day next after the days on which the orders would expire under the last preceding sub-section.

(3) An order for the removal of a patient from one custody to another shall not be deemed to be a reception order within this section, but the patient who is removed shall after removal be deemed to be detained under the original reception order as a lunatic, and such order shall expire in accordance with the provisions of this section unless continued as herein-after provided.

(4) [¹ A reception order shall remain in force for a year after the date by this Act or by an order of the Commissioners appointed for it to expire, and thereafter for two years and thereafter for three years, and after the end of such periods of one, two, and three years for successive periods of five years, if not more than one month nor less than seven days before the expiration of the period at the end of which, as fixed by this Act or by an order of the Commissioners under sub-section two, the order would expire, and of each subsequent period of one, two, three, and five years respectively a special report of the medical officer of the institution or of the medical attendant of the single patient as to the mental and bodily condition of the patient with a certificate under his hand certifying that the patient is still of unsound mind and a proper person to be detained under care and treatment is sent to the Commissioners.]

(5) The person sending the special report shall give to the Commissioners such further information concerning the patient to whom the special report relates as they require.

(6) If in the opinion of the Commissioners the special report does not justify the accompanying certificate, then—

(a) In the case of a patient in a hospital or licensed house or under care as a single patient the Commissioners shall make further inquiry, and, if dissatisfied with the result they or any two of them may by order direct his discharge:

(b) In the case of a patient in an asylum, the Commissioners shall send a copy of the report, with any other information in their possession relating to the case, to the clerk to the visiting committee of the asylum, and the committee, or any three of them, shall thereupon investigate the case and may discharge the patient or give such directions respecting him as they may think proper.

(7) The manager of any institution for lunatics, and any person having charge of a single patient, who detains a patient after he has knowledge that the order for his reception has expired, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

(8) The special reports and certificates under this section may include and refer to more than one patient.

(9) A certificate under the hand of the secretary to the Commissioners that an order for reception has been continued to the date therein mentioned shall be sufficient evidence of the fact.

(10) This section shall not apply to lunatics so found by inquisition.

Part II.

Care and Treatment.

Reports after Reception.

Reports upon and visits to private patients.

39. [¹] —(1) The medical officer of every institution for lunatics, and the medical attendant of every single patient shall at the expiration of one month after the reception of a private patient prepare and send to the Commissioners a report as to the mental and bodily condition of the patient, in such form as the Commissioners direct.

(2) The medical officer of every house licensed by justices shall also at the same time send a copy of such report to the clerk of the visitors of licensed houses in the county or borough where the house is situate to be by him laid before the visitors.

(3) The Commissioners, after receiving the report upon any patient in a licensed house within their immediate jurisdiction, shall make arrangements for a visit being paid as soon as conveniently may be to the patient by one or more of the Commissioners; and the Commissioner or Commissioners so visiting shall report to the Commissioners whether the detention of the patient is or is not proper.

(4) The visitors, after receiving the report, shall, in every case of a private patient in a licensed house in the county or borough for which the visitors are appointed, make arrangements for a visit being paid by the medical visitor (either alone or with one or more of the other visitors) to the patient therein named for such purpose as aforesaid as soon as conveniently may be; and if on such visit there appears to be any doubt as to the propriety of the detention of the patient, such visitor or visitors shall forthwith report the same in writing to the Commissioners, who shall thereupon make all such further inquiries as may be necessary to satisfy themselves whether the patient is properly detained as a lunatic, or whether he ought to be discharged, or whether the case ought to be reported to the Lord Chancellor with a view to an inquisition.

(5) In the case of a single patient the Commissioners, after receiving the report, shall either make arrangements for a visit being paid as soon as conveniently may be to the patient therein named by one or more of the Commissioners, or, if no Commissioner is available, shall cause a copy of the report to be sent to a medical visitor for the county or borough in which the single patient resides, or to some other competent person, and shall direct him to visit the patient therein named as soon as conveniently may be. The Commissioner or Commissioners, or other person visiting the patient, shall report to the Commissioners whether his detention is or is not proper.

(6) The person directed to visit a single patient under the last preceding sub-section shall for that purpose have all the powers of a Commissioner, and the Commissioners may, with the consent of the Treasury, pay to him such reasonable remuneration for his services as they think fit out of any funds which may be provided by Parliament to defray the general expenses of the Commissioners.

(7) In the case of a private patient in any asylum or hospital the Commissioners, after receiving the report, shall either make arrangements for a visit being paid, as soon as conveniently may be, to the patient therein named by one or more of the Commissioners, who shall report to the Commissioners whether the detention of the patient is or is not proper; or the Commissioners shall send a copy of the report to the clerk to the visiting committee of the asylum or to the managing committee of the hospital, and one or more members of the committee shall thereupon, as soon as conveniently may be, visit the patient named in the report and report to the committee whether his detention is or is not proper, and the committee, or any three of them, may, upon consideration of such last-mentioned report, by writing under their hands discharge the patient or give such directions with regard to him as they think fit.

(8) If within a month after the reception of any private patient, the institution for lunatics or house into which he was received is visited by one or more Commissioners or by any visitors, and such patient is there seen and examined by him or them, and the propriety of his detention reported on in like manner as by this section provided, no special visit shall necessarily be paid to such patient after receipt of any such report.

(9) If the Commissioners in any case under this section determine that a patient ought to be discharged they may make an order for his discharge.

Mechanical Restraint.

Mechanical means of restraint.

40.—(1) Mechanical means of bodily restraint shall not be applied to any lunatic unless the restraint is necessary for purposes of surgical or medical treatment, or to prevent the lunatic from injuring himself or others.

2. In every case where such restraint is applied a medical certificate shall, as soon as it can be obtained, be signed, describing the mechanical means used, and stating the grounds upon which the certificate is founded.

(3) The certificate shall be signed, in the case of a lunatic in an institution for lunatics or workhouse, by the medical officer thereof, and in the case of a single patient, by his medical attendant.

(4) A full record of every case of restraint by mechanical means shall be kept from day to day; and a copy of the records and certificates under this section shall be sent to the Commissioners at the end of every quarter.

(5) In the case of a workhouse, the record to be kept under this section shall be kept by the medical officer of the workhouse, and the copies of records and certificates to be sent shall be sent by the clerk to the guardians.

(6) In the application of this section “mechanical means” shall be such instruments and appliances as the Commissioners may, by regulations to be made from time to time, determine.

(7) Any person who wilfully acts in contravention of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Correspondence.

Letters of patients.

41.—(1) The manager of every institution for lunatics, and every person having charge of a single patient, shall forward unopened all letters written by any patient and addressed to the Lord Chancellor or any Judge in Lunacy, or to a Secretary of State, or to the Commissioners, or any Commissioner, or to the person who signed the order for the reception of the patient, or on whose petition such order was made, or to the Chancery Visitors or any Chancery Visitor or to any other visitors or visitor or to the visiting committee, or any member of the visiting committee of the institution, in which any patient writing such letters may be, and may also at his discretion forward to its address any other letter if written by a private patient.

(2) Every manager of an institution for lunatics, and every person having charge of a single patient who makes default in complying with the obligation imposed on him by this section shall for each offence be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds.

Notices.

Notices as to letters and interviews.

42.—(1) Whenever the Commissioners so direct, there shall, unless there is no private patient therein, be posted up in every institution for lunatics, printed notices setting forth—

(a) The right of every private patient to have any letter written by him forwarded in pursuance of the last preceding section.

(b) The right of every private patient to request a personal and private interview with a visiting Commissioner or visitor at any visit which may be made to the institution.

(2) The notices shall be posted in the institution, so that every private patient may be able to see the same.

(3) The visiting Commissioners or visitors may give directions as to the places in which such notices are to be posted.

(4) If the manager of any institution for lunatics makes default in posting such notices, or does not within ten days carry out any directions as to such notices given by the visiting Commissioners or visitors, he shall for each offence be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds.

Medical Attendance.

Persons disqualified to be medical attendants of lunatic.

43.—(1) A medical practitioner who has signed a certificate upon which a reception order in the case of a private patient has been made shall not be the regular professional attendant of the patient while detained under the order.

(2) A medical practitioner, who is a Commissioner or visitor, shall not professionally attend upon a patient in a hospital or licensed house, unless he is directed to visit the patient by the person on whose petition the reception order was made, or by the Lord Chancellor, or a Secretary of State, or a committee appointed by the Judge in Lunacy.

Medical attendance on single patients.

44.—(1) The Commissioners may by order direct how often any single patient is to be visited by a medical practitioner.

(2) Until any such order is made, every single patient shall be visited once at least in every two weeks by a medical practitioner not deriving, and not having a partner, father, son, or brother who derives, any profit from the charge of the patient.

(3) Any two Commissioners may direct that the medical attendant of a single patient shall cease to act in that capacity, and that some other person be employed in his place.

(4) If a person having charge of a single patient fails to give effect to any direction of the Commissioners under this section, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

(5) This section shall not apply to lunatics so found by inquisition.

Special report as to single patient.

45. The Commissioners may at any time require from the medical attendant of a single patient a report in writing as to the patient, in such form and specifying such particulars as the Commissioners direct, and such report shall be in addition to any periodical reports required to be sent to the Commissioners.

Power to take more than one Lunatic as a Single Patient.

Power to take more than one person on same conditions as a single patient.

46. In the case of any person having charge of a single patient, if the Commissioners are satisfied that it is desirable, under special circumstances and for the interest of the patient that another patient or more than one another should reside in the same house, that person may, with the approval of the Commissioners, receive such other patient or patients on the same terms and conditions in all respects as if each of them were a single patient.

Visits of Friends.

Admission to patients of friends, relations, and others.

47.—(1) Any one of the Commissioners, as to patients confined in an institution for lunatics or other place (not being a gaol) authorised to be visited by the Commissioners, and any one of the visitors of a licensed house, as to patients confined in such house, may at any time give an order in writing under his hand for the admission to any patient of any relation or friend or of any medical or other person whom any relation or friend desires to be admitted to him.

(2) The order of admission may be either for a single admission, or for an admission for a limited number of times, or for admission generally at all reasonable times, and with or without any restriction as to the presence of an attendant or otherwise.

(3) If the manager or principal officer of any institution or place refuses, prevents, or obstructs the admission to any patient of any person who produces an order of admission, he shall for every offence be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds.

Appointment of Substitute for Person who applied for Reception Order.

Power to appoint substitute for the person who applied for reception order.

48.—(1) The Commissioners may by order substitute for the person upon whose petition a reception order was made, and either during the life of such person or after his death, any other person who is willing to undertake the duties and responsibilities of the petitioner.

(2) As from the date of an order by the Commissioners under this section the substituted person shall be subject to all the obligations and may exercise all the powers and authorities in relation to the patient of the person for whom he is substituted.

(3) The substitution shall not release the petitioner or his estate from any liabilities already incurred by him.

(4) An order under this section may be made with or without the consent of the petitioner, but in the last-mentioned case the order shall not be made during his life until fourteen days after the Commissioners have given to him notice in writing of their intention to take into consideration the advisability of making an order under this section and of the name of the person proposed to be substituted.

(5) Within fourteen days after receipt of the notice the person to whom the notice is given may lay before the Commissioners a statement in writing of his reasons why an order under this section should not be made, or he may appear in person before the Commissioners at such time and place and subject to such restrictions as the Commissioners may appoint for the purpose of stating such reasons. The Commissioners shall, upon consideration of such statement, or, if no statement is made, at their own discretion, finally determine the matter, and make or decline to make the order, as they may think fit.

(6) A notice under this section may be sent by post to the last known address of the petitioner.

Examination of Lunatic.

Provision for any person to apply to have patient examined.

49. An order for the examination by two medical practitioners, authorised by the Commissioners, of any person detained as a lunatic in any institution for lunatics, or as a single patient, may be obtained from the Commissioners upon the application of any person, whether a relative or friend or not, who satisfies the Commissioners that it is proper for them to grant such order; and on production to the Commissioners of the certificates of the medical practitioners so authorised, certifying that after two separate examinations with at least seven days intervening between the first and the second examination, they are of opinion that the patient may, without risk or injury to himself or the public, be discharged, the Commissioners may order the patient to be discharged at the expiration of ten days from the date of the order.

Inquiries as to Property.

Inquiries as to property.

50.—(1) Where any person is detained as a lunatic and the Commissioners represent to the Lord Chancellor that it is desirable that the extent and nature of his property, and its application, should be ascertained, the Lord Chancellor may, if he think fit, through the Masters, require that the person upon whose petition the reception order under which the lunatic is detained was made, or other the person paying for the care and maintenance of the lunatic or having the management of his property, shall transmit to the Lord Chancellor a statement in writing, to the best of his knowledge, of the particulars of the property of the lunatic and of its application.

(2) The Commissioners may also, whenever they think it expedient, make inquiries as to the property of any person detained as a lunatic.

Application for a Search.

Power for a Commissioner or visitor to direct a search whether a particular person has been confined.

51.—(1) If any person applies to a Commissioner in order to be informed whether any particular patient is confined in any institution for lunatics, or other place subject to the visitation of the Commissioners, the Commissioner, if he thinks fit, may sign an order to the secretary of the Commissioners, who shall search amongst the returns made to the Commissioners, whether the person inquired after is or has been within the last twelve months confined.

(2) If it appears that the patient is or has been so confined the secretary shall deliver to the applicant a statement in writing, specifying the situation of the institution or place in which the patient appears to be or to have been confined, and also (so far as the secretary can ascertain the same from any register or return in his possession) the name of the manager or principal officer of the institution or place, and the date of admission, and (in case of the patient’s removal or discharge) the date of his removal or discharge.

(3) If any such application is made to a visitor as to any licensed house within his jurisdiction, the visitor may make the like order upon the clerk to the visitors, who shall make search among the returns made to him, and deliver to the applicant the like statement as to any such licensed house as the secretary of the Commissioners is by this section required to make and deliver.

(4) The applicant shall pay to the person required to make a search under this section such sum not exceeding seven shillings as the Commissioners or visitors fix.

Diet.

Diet of patients.

52.—(1) The visiting Commissioners may determine and regulate the diet of the pauper patients in any hospital or licensed house.

(2) The visitors of a licensed house shall have the like power as to that house, subject, nevertheless, to any direction the visiting Commissioners may give.

Employment of Males in care of Females.

Males not to be employed in personal custody of females.

53. It shall not be lawful to employ any male person in any institution for lunatics in the personal custody or restraint of any female patient, and any person employing a male person contrary to this section shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds. Provided that this section shall not extend to prohibit or impose a penalty on the employment of male persons on such occasions of urgency as may in the judgment of the manager of the institution render such employment necessary, but the manager shall in each case report the employment to the visiting commissioners or visitors at their next visit.

Book to be kept in Workhouse.

Book to be kept in workhouse.

54.—(1) The visiting guardians of every union shall, once at least in each quarter, enter in a book to be provided and kept by the master of the workhouse, such observations as they may think fit to make respecting the diet, accommodation, and treatment of the lunatics or alleged lunatics in the workhouse.

(2) Such book shall be laid by the master before the Commissioner or Commissioners at his or their next visit.

Absence on Trial or for Health.

Absence on trial or for health.

55.—(1) Any two visitors of an asylum, with the advice in writing of the medical officer, may permit a patient in the asylum to be absent on trial so long as they think fit.

(2) The visitors may make an allowance to a pauper lunatic absent from the asylum on trial, not exceeding the charge in the asylum, and that allowance, and no more, shall be paid for him as if he were in the asylum.

(3) The manager of any hospital or licensed house may, with such consent as herein-after mentioned:—

(a) send or take, under proper control, any private patient or two or more private patients to any specified place [¹ or to travel in England] for such period as may be thought fit for the benefit of his or their health:

(b) permit a private patient to be absent upon trial for such period as may be thought fit.

(4) The consent required by this section shall be either that of a Commissioner, or in the case of a hospital that of two members of the managing committee, or in the case of a house licensed by justices that of two of the visitors. Any such consent may be renewed, and the place when required to be specified varied.

(5) Before such consent is given, the approval in writing of the person on whose petition the reception order was made, or by whom the last payment on account of the lunatic was made, shall be produced, unless the consenting persons, on cause being shown, dispense with the same.

(6) A Commissioner as regards any hospital or any licensed house, and two members of the managing committee of a hospital, and two of the visitors of a house licensed by [² justices] may, of their own authority, permit a pauper patient to be absent upon trial for such period as may be thought proper, and may make or order to be made an allowance to the pauper, not exceeding the charge for him in the hospital or house, which shall be payable as if he were in the hospital or house, but shall be paid over to him or for his benefit as [³ such Commissioner or such two visitors] may direct.

(7) The medical officer of a hospital or licensed house may, of his own authority, permit any patient to be absent from the hospital or house for a period not exceeding forty-eight hours.

(8) If a person allowed to be absent on trial for any period does not return at the expiration thereof, and a medical certificate certifying that his detention as a lunatic is no longer necessary is not sent to the visitors of the asylum or the manager of the hospital or house, he may at any time within fourteen days after the expiration of the period of trial be retaken as in the case of an escape.

Change of residence of single patients.

56.—(1) Any person having charge of a single patient may change his residence and remove the patient to any new residence of such person in England.

(2) Seven clear days before a change of residence, the person having charge of a single patient shall give notice in writing thereof, and of the place of the new residence, to the Commissioners and to the person on whose petition the reception order was made, or by whom the last payment on account of the patient was made.

(3) Any person having charge of a single patient, with the previous consent of a Commissioner, may take or send the patient, under proper control, to any specified place or places, for any definite time, for the benefit of his health [¹ or permit the patient to be absent upon trial for such period as may be thought fit].

(4) Before any consent by a Commissioner is given, the approval in writing of the person on whose petition the reception order was made, or by whom the last payment on account of the patient was made, shall be produced to the Commissioner, unless, on cause being shown, he dispenses with the same.

Boarding-out Lunatics.

Maintenance for pauper lunatic taken charge of by relatives.

51 & 52 Vict. c. 41.

57.—(1) Where application is made to the visiting committee of an asylum by any relative or friend of a pauper lunatic confined therein that he may be delivered over to the custody of such relative or friend, the committee may, upon being satisfied that the application has been approved by the guardians of the union to which the lunatic is chargeable or the local authority liable for his maintenance, and, in case the proposed residence is outside the limits of such union or the area subject to such local authority, then also by a justice having jurisdiction in the place where the relative or friend resides, and that the lunatic will be properly taken care of, order the lunatic to be delivered over accordingly.

(2) Where any such order is made, the authority liable for the maintenance of the lunatic shall pay to the person to whom the lunatic is delivered such allowance for the maintenance of the lunatic, not exceeding the expenses which would be incurred on his account if he were in the asylum, as such authority on the recommendation of the visiting committee of asylum from which the lunatic was delivered over thinks proper.

(3) For the purposes of section twenty-four, sub-section (2) (f), of the Local Government Act, 1888, a lunatic boarded-out by the authorities of any asylum shall be deemed to be a lunatic maintained in an asylum.

Removal of Lunatics.

Removal of private patient by person authorised to discharge the patient.

58. A person having authority to order the discharge of a private patient from an institution for lunatics, or of any single patient, may, with the previous consent in writing of a Commissioner, by order in writing direct the removal of the patient to any institution for lunatics or to the charge of any person named in the order.

Removal of lunatics by Commissioners.

59.—(1) Any two Commissioners may by order direct the removal of a lunatic from an institution for lunatics to any other institution for lunatics.

(2) Upon the death of a person having charge of a single patient, the Commissioners may, upon the application of the person having authority to discharge the patient, or if he does not apply within seven days after the death, upon their own motion, direct the patient to be removed to the charge of a person named in the order.

(3) Any two Commissioners may at any time by order direct the removal of a lunatic from the charge of any person under whose care he is as a single patient, to the charge of any other person or to any institution for lunatics.

Removal of lunatic from workhouse by Commissioners.

60.—(1) Where, upon the visitation of a workhouse by any two or more Commissioners, it appears to them that a lunatic or alleged lunatic therein is not a proper person to be allowed to remain in a workhouse, they may by order direct the lunatic to be removed to an institution for lunatics, and every such order shall have the same effect as a summary reception order.

(2) The guardians of the union to which the workhouse belongs may appeal against an order under this section within one month from the making thereof to a Secretary of State, who shall thereupon employ a Commissioner, not being one of the Commissioners who made the order, or some other person, to make a special visitation of the workhouse and to report to him upon the matter, and the decision of the Secretary of State upon such report shall be conclusive.

Removal of lunatic in a hospital or licensed house by guardians.

61.—(1) The authority liable for the maintenance of a pauper lunatic detained in a hospital or licensed house may make an order for the removal of the lunatic [¹ to the workhouse of the union to which the lunatic is chargeable, or, if the lunatic is chargeable to a county or borough, to the workhouse of the union from which he was sent to the hospital or licensed house] and may direct the mode of removal.

(2) Upon production to the manager of the hospital or house of a copy of the order he shall forthwith remove the patient or suffer him to be removed.

[S. 62 rep. 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 29.]

Removal of lunatic boarded out into asylum.

63. Where the visiting committee of an asylum has made an order for a pauper lunatic in the asylum to be delivered to the custody of a relative or friend, any two members of the committee may at any time, if they think fit, order the lunatic to be removed to the asylum.

Removal of pauper into county asylum.

64. Any two visitors of an asylum may order a pauper lunatic chargeable to any union within any county or borough to which the asylum wholly or in part belongs, or to such county or to any county for the reception of the pauper lunatics whereof into that asylum there is a subsisting contract, to be removed to that asylum from any other institution for lunatics in which he may be detained.

Removal of pauper from asylum.

Directions as to execution of order for removal.

65.—(1) Any two visitors of an asylum may order a pauper lunatic in the asylum to be removed to some other institution for lunatics.

(2) A lunatic shall not be removed under this section without the consent in writing of two Commissioners, except to—

(a) an asylum within or belonging wholly or in part to the county within which the asylum from which the lunatic is removed is situate, or to the county in some parish of which the lunatic may have been adjudged to be settled; or

(b) a hospital or licensed house within any such county as aforesaid; or

Untitled

66. The visitors making an order for the removal of a pauper lunatic may by the order require any relieving officer, or other officer of the union, county, or borough to which the lunatic is chargeable, or may authorise any other person, to execute the same.

Restriction upon removal of paupers by two visitors.

67. A pauper lunatic shall not be removed under any order for removal made by two visitors without a medical certificate signed by the medical officer of the institution for lunatics from which the patient is to be removed, certifying that he is in a fit condition of bodily health to be removed.

Removal of lunatic from workhouse by a justice.

68. Where a union is in more than one county, and the workhouse of the union is in one county, and the place from which a lunatic was sent to the workhouse is in another county, an order may be made by a justice for the county in which the workhouse is, or a justice for the county from which the lunatic was sent, for the removal of the lunatic either to the asylum of the county in which the workhouse is or to the asylum of the county from which the lunatic was sent, and such latter order may be made notwithstanding that there may be an asylum of the county in which the workhouse is, and there may not be a deficiency of room or any other special circumstances by reason whereof the lunatic cannot conveniently be taken to that asylum.

Restriction as to institution to which pauper may be removed.

69. Except under the provisions of the preceding section a pauper lunatic shall not be removed under an order of removal to any institution for lunatics into which he could not have been received under a reception order.

Removal orders to be in duplicate.

70.—(1) Every order for the removal of a lunatic from an institution for lunatics or from the charge of any person and the consent of the Commissioners thereto, where required, shall be in duplicate. One duplicate shall be delivered to the manager of the institution for lunatics or the person from whose care the lunatic is removed, and the other to the manager of the institution for lunatics, or the person into whose care the lunatic is removed.

(2) Every such order, with such consent as aforesaid where required, shall be sufficient authority for the removal and reception of the lunatic, in accordance with the order.

(3) The manager of the institution from which, or the person from whose care the lunatic is removed under any such order, shall deliver, free of expense, a copy of the reception order and documents accompanying the same to the person executing the order for removal, to be by him delivered to the manager of the institution into which or the person into whose care the lunatic is removed.

(4) Every such copy shall be certified under the hand of the person whose duty it is to deliver the same.

Removal of alien to his native country

71.—(1) Where an alien is detained as a lunatic, and his family or friends desire that he should be removed to the country of which he is a subject, the Commissioners, upon application by any member of the family or by a friend of the alien, may inquire into the circumstances of the case and report thereon to a Secretary of State.

(2) A Secretary of State, if satisfied by such report that the person to whom the report relates is an alien and a lunatic, and that his removal is likely to be for his benefit, and that proper arrangements have been made for such removal, and for his subsequent care and treatment, may, by warrant, direct the alien to be delivered to the person named in the warrant for the purpose of removal to the country of which he is a subject, and every such warrant shall be obeyed by the person or authority under whose charge the lunatic is.

(3) A warrant under this section shall be sufficient authority for the master of any vessel to receive and detain the lunatic on board the vessel, and to convey him to his destination.

Discharge of Lunatics.

Discharge of private patient.

72.—(1) A private patient detained in an institution for lunatics, or under care as a single patient, shall be discharged if the person on whose petition the reception order was made by writing under his hand so directs.

(2) If that person is dead, or incapable by reason of insanity, absence from England, or otherwise, of signing an order for discharge, or, if a patient having been originally classified as a pauper is afterwards classified as a private patient, the person who made the last payment on account of the patient, or the husband or wife, or if there is no husband or wife, or the husband or wife is incapable as aforesaid, the father, or if there is no father, or he is incapable as aforesaid, the mother of the patient, or, if there is no mother, or she is incapable, then any one of the nearest of kin of the patient, may give the direction for his discharge.

(3) If there is no person qualified to direct the discharge of a patient under this section, or no person able or willing to act, the Commissioners may order his discharge.

Discharge of pauper in hospital or house.

73. The authority liable for the maintenance of a pauper lunatic detained in a hospital or licensed house may make an order for the discharge of the lunatic, and may direct the mode of discharge, and upon production to the manager of the hospital or house of a copy of the order he shall forthwith discharge the patient, or suffer him to be discharged.

Restriction on discharge.

74. A patient shall not be discharged under the provisions of the two preceding sections if the medical officer of the institution, or, in the case of a single patient, his medical attendant, certifies in writing that the patient is dangerous and unfit to be at large, together with the grounds on which the certificate is founded, unless two of the visitors of the asylum, or the Commissioners visiting the hospital or house, or the visitors of the house, or in the case of a single patient, one of the Commissioners, after the certificate has been produced, consent in writing to the patient’s discharge.

Discharge by Commissioners of patients in hospital or licensed house, and of single patients.

75. Two of the Commissioners, one of whom shall be a medical and the other a legal Commissioner, may visit a patient detained in any hospital or licensed house, or as a single patient, and may, within seven days after their visit, if the patient appears to them to be detained without sufficient cause, make an order for his discharge.

Notice of order of discharge.

76.—(1) The Commissioners when they have made any order of discharge shall forthwith serve the same upon the manager of the institution for lunatics where the patient is detained, or upon the person having charge of the patient as a single patient, and shall give notice of such order,—

(a) In the case of a private patient, to the person on whose petition the reception order was made or who made the last payment on account of the patient:

(b) In the case of a pauper, to the authority liable for his maintenance.

(2) Any person who has been duly served with any such order of discharge and detains a patient after the date of discharge appointed thereby shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Visitors may discharge patients in asylums.

77.—(1) Any three visitors of an asylum may order the discharge of any person detained therein whether he is recovered or not.

(2) Any two such visitors, with the advice in writing of the medical officer, may order the discharge of any person detained in the asylum.

Discharge by visitors of lunatics in licensed houses.

78.—(1) If after two visits by two visitors to a house licensed by justices, it appears to the visitors that any patient is detained without sufficient cause, the visitors may make such order as they think fit for his discharge.

(2) In the case of visits under this section, one of the visitors shall be a medical practitioner.

(3) The two visits shall be made by the same visitors at an interval of not less than seven days.

(4) Seven days’ notice of the second visit shall be given either by post or by an entry in the patients book to the manager of the house, who shall forthwith send by post a copy of the notice, in the case of a private patient to the person on whose petition the reception order was made, or by whom the last payment on account of the lunatic was made, and in the case of a pauper to the authority liable for his maintenance, and also to the clerk of the visitors of the house.

(5) The visitors before making an order under this section shall examine the medical officer of the house as to his opinion respecting the fitness of the patient to be discharged, if he tenders himself for examination.

(6) If after such examination an order for discharge is made, and the medical officer furnishes to the visitors a statement of his reasons against the discharge, they shall forthwith send the statement to the clerk of the visitors.

(7) This section shall not apply to a lunatic so found by inquisition.

(8) Every order under this section shall be signed by the visitors by whom it is made.

Discharge of pauper on application of relative or friend.

79. When application is made to the visiting committee of an asylum by a relative or friend of a pauper lunatic confined therein, requiring that he may be delivered over to the custody and care of such relative or friend, any two of the visitors may, if they think fit, discharge the lunatic upon the undertaking of the relative or friend, to their satisfaction, that the lunatic shall be no longer chargeable to any union, county, or borough, and shall be properly taken care of and prevented from doing injury to himself or others.

Visiting committee may send notice of intention to discharge pauper lunatic to relieving officer or clerk of local authority.

80.—(1) When the visitors of an asylum order a pauper lunatic confined therein to be discharged, except on the application of a relative or friend, they may, when they think fit, send a notice in writing, signed by the clerk of the asylum, by post or otherwise, of their intention to discharge the lunatic to a relieving officer of the union to which the lunatic is chargeable, or to the clerk of the local authority liable for his maintenance.

(2) Upon receipt of such notice, the relieving officer or clerk shall cause the lunatic upon his discharge to be forthwith removed to the workhouse of the union to which the lunatic is chargeable, or, if the lunatic is chargeable to a county or borough, to the workhouse of the union from which he was sent to the asylum.

Discharge from workhouse by guardians.

81. The guardians of the union to which a workhouse belongs may make an order for the discharge of any lunatic detained therein.

Copies of reception order and other documents to be furnished.

82. The Secretary to the Commissioners shall, upon the discharge of a person who considers himself to have been unjustly confined as a lunatic, furnish to him upon his request, free of expense, a copy of the reception order and certificate or certificates upon which he was confined, and if the order was made upon petition, also of the petition and statement of particulars upon which the reception order was made.

Recovery of Patient.

Notice to be given on recovery of a patient.

83.—(1) The manager of every hospital and licensed house, and a person having charge of a single patient, shall forthwith, upon the recovery of a patient, send notice thereof in the case of a patient not a pauper to the person on whose petition the reception order was made, or by whom the last payment on account of the patient was made, and in the case of a pauper to the guardians of his union, or if a local authority is liable for his maintenance to the clerk of the local authority.

(2) The notice shall state that unless the patient is removed within seven days from the date of the notice he will be discharged.

(3) In case the patient is not removed within seven days from the date of the notice he shall be forthwith discharged.

Inquiry into Cause of Death.

Coroner to inquire into death, if necessary.

84. Every coroner shall upon receiving notice of the death of a lunatic within his district, if he considers that any reasonable suspicion attends the cause and circumstances of the death, summon a jury to inquire into the same.

Escape and Recapture.

Escape and recapture.

85. If any person detained as a lunatic under this Act escapes, he may, without a fresh order and certificate or certificates, be retaken at any time within fourteen days after his escape by the manager of the institution for lunatics or the master of the workhouse in which he was detained, or any officer, or servant thereof respectively, or by the person in whose charge he was as a single patient, or by anyone authorised in writing by such manager, master, or person.

Escape from England into Scotland or Ireland.

86.—(1) If any person detained as a lunatic under lawful authority in England escapes into Scotland or Ireland, notice of the escape shall as soon as practicable be given to the Commissioners, who may, by writing under their seal, authorise an application to be made by such person as they think fit to any justice having jurisdiction in the place where the lunatic was so detained for a warrant authorising such person to retake the lunatic and bring him back to such place.

(2) Such warrant, when granted, shall in Scotland or Ireland as well as in England be sufficient prima facie evidence that the person stated therein to have escaped was so detained as a lunatic under lawful authority as aforesaid, and of the fact of his escape, and shall be sufficient authority for any sheriff in Scotland, or for any justice in Ireland, to countersign the same; and any such warrant so countersigned may be executed in Scotland, or Ireland, as the case may be, by retaking such lunatic and bringing him from thence, to the intent that he may be restored to the custody from which he escaped.

Escape from Scotland into England or Ireland.

87.—(1) If any person detained as a lunatic under lawful authority in Scotland escapes into England or Ireland, notice of the escape shall as soon as practicable be given to the General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland, who may, by writing under the hand of one of such Commissioners, authorise an application to be made by such person as they think fit to any sheriff having jurisdiction in the place where the lunatic was so detained for a warrant authorising such person to retake the lunatic and bring him back to such place.

(2) Such warrant, when granted, shall in England and Ireland as well as in Scotland be sufficient prima facie evidence that the person stated therein to have escaped was so detained as a lunatic under lawful authority as aforesaid, and of the fact of his escape, and shall be sufficient authority for any justice in England or Ireland to countersign the same; and any such warrant so countersigned may be executed in England or Ireland, as the case may be, by retaking such lunatic and bringing him from thence, to the intent that he may be restored to the custody from which he escaped.

(3) For the purposes of this section a writing purporting to be signed by one of the Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland shall be deemed to have been signed by him until the contrary is proved.

Escape from Ireland into England or Scotland.

88.—(1) If any person detained as a lunatic under lawful authority in Ireland escapes into England or Scotland, notice of the escape shall as soon as practicable be given, where such person has been so detained by order of the Lord Chancellor for the time being entrusted by the sign manual of Her Majesty with the care and commitment of the custody of the persons and estates of lunatics in Ireland, to the Registrar in Lunacy, and in other cases to the Inspectors of Lunatics in Ireland, who may, by writing under the hand of the said registrar, or one of the said inspectors, as the case may be, authorise an application to be made by such person as they think fit to any justice having jurisdiction in the place where the lunatic was so detained for a warrant authorising such person to retake the lunatic and bring him back to such place.

(2) Such warrant, when granted, shall in England and Scotland as well as in Ireland be sufficient prima facie evidence that the person stated therein to have escaped was so detained as a lunatic under lawful authority as aforesaid, and of the fact of such escape, and shall be sufficient authority for any justice in England, and for any sheriff in Scotland, to countersign the same; and any such warrant so countersigned may be executed in England or Scotland, as the case may be, by retaking the lunatic and bringing him from thence, to the intent that he may be restored to the custody from which he escaped.

(3) For the purposes of this section a writing purporting to be signed by the Registrar in Lunacy, or one of the Inspectors of Lunatics in Ireland, as the case may be, shall be deemed to have been signed by him unless the contrary is proved.

Limit of time of retaking lunatic.

89. A warrant, granted under any of the three preceding sections, shall not authorise the retaking of a lunatic after the expiration of the time during which he could have been retaken according to the law in force in the place where he was detained as a lunatic if he had remained there after his escape.

Part III.

Judicial Inquisition as to Lunacy.

The Inquisition.

Order for inquisition as to lunacy.

90.—(1) The Judge in Lunacy may upon application by order direct an inquisition whether a person is of unsound mind and incapable of managing himself and his affairs.

(2) Where the alleged lunatic is within the jurisdiction, he shall have notice of the application and shall be entitled to demand an inquiry before a jury.

(3) Upon the hearing of the application, the alleged lunatic may withdraw any demand for a jury made by him.

Demand of a jury by alleged lunatic.

91. Where the alleged lunatic demands a jury, the Judge in Lunacy shall in his order for inquisition direct the return of a jury, unless he is satisfied, by personal examination of the alleged lunatic, that he is not mentally competent to form and express a wish for an inquisition before a jury; and the Judge may, where he deems it necessary, and for the purpose of personal examination, require the alleged lunatic to attend him at such convenient time and place as he may appoint.

Cases where a jury may be dispensed with.

92. Where the alleged lunatic does not demand a jury, or the Judge in Lunacy is satisfied by a personal examination that he is not mentally competent to form and express a wish in that behalf, and it appears to the Judge, upon consideration of the evidence, and of the circumstances of the case, to be unnecessary or inexpedient that the inquisition should be before a jury, and he accordingly does not in his order for inquisition direct the return of a jury, then the Masters shall, without a jury, personally examine the alleged lunatic, and take such evidence, upon oath or otherwise, and call for such information as they think fit or the Judge directs, in order to ascertain whether or not the alleged lunatic is of unsound mind, and shall certify their finding thereon.

Jury to be had, if masters certify that it is expedient.

93. Where the Judge in Lunacy does not in his order for inquisition direct the return of a jury, but the Masters, upon consideration of the evidence, certify that in their opinion an inquisition before a jury is expedient, they shall, without further order, issue their precept to the sheriff, and shall proceed in like manner in all respects, and their proceedings shall be as valid and effectual as if the Judge had directed the return of a jury in the first instance.

Inquiries before a jury may be made by means of an issue in the High Court.

94.—(1) Wherever the Judge in Lunacy orders an inquisition before a jury, he may by his order direct an issue to be tried in the High Court, and the question in such issue shall be, whether the alleged lunatic is of unsound mind and incapable of managing himself or his affairs; and the provisions of this Act with respect to commissions of lunacy, and orders for inquisition to be tried by a jury, and the trial thereof, and the constitution of the jury, shall apply to any issue to be directed as aforesaid, and the trial thereof, and subject thereto and to the provisions of this Act such issue and the trial thereof shall be regulated by the Rules of the Supreme Court for the time being in force relating to the trial of issues of fact by a jury, and the verdict upon any such issue finding the alleged lunatic to be of unsound mind and incapable of managing himself or his affairs shall have the same effect as an inquisition under this Act.

(2) [¹] On the trial of every such issue the alleged lunatic shall, if he is within the jurisdiction, be examined before the evidence is taken, and at the close of the proceedings, before the jury consult as to their verdict, unless the Judge who tries the issue otherwise directs; and such examinations shall take place either in open court or in private as such Judge directs.

Certificate of masters without a jury to have the force and effect of an inquisition.

95. Where the Masters certify that the alleged lunatic is of unsound mind, and incapable of managing himself or his affairs, or that he is of sound mind, and capable of managing his affairs, the certificate shall have the same effect as an inquisition taken upon the oath of a jury.

Jury to be had if lunatic out of jurisdiction.

96. Where the alleged lunatic is not within the jurisdiction it shall not be necessary to give him notice of the application for inquisition, and the inquisition shall be before a jury.

Number of jury.

97. The Lord Chancellor may, by order, regulate the number of jurors to be sworn, but so that every inquisition upon the oath of a jury be found by the oaths of twelve men, at least.

Nature and limit of inquisitions.

98.—(1) The inquisition shall be confined to the question whether or not the alleged lunatic is at the time of the inquisition of unsound mind, and incapable of managing himself or his affairs, and no evidence as to anything done or said by him, or as to his demeanour or state of mind at any time, being more than two years before the time of the inquisition, shall be receivable in proof of insanity, or on the trial of any traverse of an inquisition, unless the person executing the inquisition otherwise directs.

(2) If upon such inquisition it appears that the alleged lunatic is of unsound mind, so as to be incapable of managing his affairs, but that he is capable of managing himself, and is not dangerous to himself or to others, it may be so specially found and certified.

Power of person executing inquiry.

99. The person executing an inquisition . shall, while so employed, have all the powers, authorities, and discretion of a Judge of the High Court.

Inquisition may be ordered on report of Commissioners.

100. Where the Commissioners report to the Lord Chancellor that they are of opinion that the property of any person detained or taken charge of as a lunatic, but not so found by inquisition, is not duly protected, or that the income thereof is not duly applied for his benefit, or to the same effect, the report shall be filed with the Masters, and shall be deemed to be an application for inquisition supported by evidence, and the alleged lunatic shall have notice of the report from such person as the Judge in Lunacy directs, and the case shall proceed and be conducted as nearly as may be in all respects as is herein-before directed upon an application for inquisition.

Traverse and Supersedeas of an Inquisition.

Application for traverse to be made within a limited time.

101.—(1) Any person desiring to traverse an inquisition, not being a verdict upon an issue tried in the High Court, may, within three months next after the day of the return of the inquisition, apply for that purpose to the Judge in Lunacy.

(2) The Judge shall hear and determine the application, and shall in his order upon it for a traverse limit a time, not exceeding six months from the date of the order, within which the person desiring to traverse and all other proper parties are to proceed to trial of the traverse.

(3) The Judge may by the same or any other order direct that the person desiring to traverse, not being the person the object of the inquisition, shall within three weeks next after the date of the order, give sufficient security to and to the satisfaction of the Masters for all proper parties proceeding to trial within the time to be limited as aforesaid.

Persons not proceeding to trial within limited time barred.

102. Every person who does not within the appointed time apply for a traverse, or who refuses or neglects to give such security as aforesaid, or who does not proceed to trial within the appointed time, shall be absolutely barred of the right of traverse: Provided that the Judge in Lunacy may, under the special circumstances of any particular case, extend the time upon such terms as he thinks just.

Judge may direct new trials.

103. If the Judge in Lunacy is dissatisfied with the verdict returned upon a traverse, he may order one or more new trial or trials thereon, as he thinks fit; but no person shall be admitted to traverse oftener than once.

New trial of an issue.

104. A traverse of a verdict upon an issue tried in the High Court shall not be allowed, but the Judge in Lunacy may, if he thinks fit, upon application within three months next after the trial of any such issue, order a new trial of the issue, or a new inquisition as to the insanity of the alleged lunatic, subject to such directions and upon such conditions as to the Judge may seem proper.

Commission may be superseded on conditions.

105. If it appears to the Judge in Lunacy that it is not expedient or for the benefit of the lunatic that the commission should be unconditionally superseded, but that the same should be superseded on terms and conditions, he may, upon the consent of the lunatic and any other persons whose consent he deems necessary, order the commission to be superseded upon such terms and conditions as he thinks proper, and the Judge may make such orders as he thinks fit for giving effect to such terms and conditions.

Power to supersede inquisition as regards commitment of person.

106.—(1) The Judge in Lunacy, if satisfied by a report of the Commissioners, or of one of the Chancery Visitors, or on any other evidence, that a lunatic so found by inquisition is cured or capable of managing himself, and not dangerous to himself or others, though incapable of managing his affairs, may, if he thinks it desirable that the ordinary proceedings for a supersedeas should not be insisted on, by order supersede the inquisition, so far as the same finds that the lunatic is incapable of managing himself, and rescind or vary any order for the commitment of the person of the lunatic.

(2) An order under this section may be made on such terms and conditions as the Judge thinks fit.

(3) Notice of an order under this section shall be forthwith given to the committee of the person of the lunatic, and also to the person under whose care the lunatic is.

Transmission of Inquisition and Supersedeas to Ireland and England.

Transmission of inquisition and Supersedeas to Ireland and England.

107. Where it is desired that an inquisition taken, or a writ of supersedeas issued in England or Ireland, should be acted upon in Ireland or England, the proper officer may, under order of the Judge in Lunacy in England, or the Lord Chancellor for the time being entrusted by the Sign Manual of Her Majesty with the care and commitment of the custody of the persons and estates of lunatics in Ireland, as the case may be, transmit a transcript of the record of the inquisition, or of the writ, to the Registrar in Lunacy in Ireland or the High Court in England, as the case may be, which transcript shall thereupon be entered and be of record there respectively, and shall, when so entered of record, and if and so long only as the Lord Chancellor entrusted as aforesaid in Ireland and the Judge in Lunacy in England, as the case may be, thinks fit, be acted upon by them respectively, and be of the same validity and effect, to all intents and purposes, as if the inquisition had been taken or the writ issued in Ireland or England respectively.

Part IV.

Judicial Powers over Person and Estate of Lunatics.

The Judge in Lunacy.

Jurisdiction of judge in lunacy.

108.—(1) The jurisdiction of the Judge in Lunacy under this Act shall be exercised either by the Lord Chancellor for the time being entrusted by the Sign Manual of Her Majesty with the care and commitment of the custody of the persons and estates of lunatics, acting alone or jointly with any one or more of such Judges of the Supreme Court as may for the time being be entrusted as aforesaid, or by any one or more of such Judges as aforesaid.

(2) The Judge in Lunacy may make orders for the custody of lunatics so found by inquisition and the management of their estates, and every such order shall take effect as to the custody of the person immediately, and as to the custody of the estate upon the Master’s certificate of completion of the committee’s security.

(3) Where upon the inquisition it is specially found or certified that the person to whom the inquisition relates is of unsound mind so as to be incapable of managing his affairs, but that he is capable of managing himself, and is not dangerous to himself or to others, the Judge in Lunacy may make such orders as he thinks fit for the commitment of the estate of the lunatic and its management, including all proper provisions for the maintenance of the lunatic, but it shall not be necessary, unless in the discretion of the judge it appears proper to do so, to make any order as to the custody or commitment of the person of the lunatic.

(4) Any order under this section may be made notwithstanding proceedings are pending for a traverse or new trial, and any person acting upon an order so made shall be in-demnified as effectually as if there had been no right of traverse or new trial.

Costs.

109. The costs of all proceedings for the purpose of ascertaining whether a person is lunatic, and of all proceedings in the matter of a lunatic shall be in the discretion of the Judge in Lunacy, who may order all or any of such costs to be paid by the lunatic or alleged lunatic, or to be charged upon and paid out of his estate, or such part thereof as the Judge thinks fit, or by any other party to the proceedings; and in the case of the death of the lunatic or alleged lunatic, an order for payment of costs out of his estate may be made within six years next after the right to recover the costs has accrued, and every such order shall have the effect of an order of the High Court.

Powers to extend to British possessions.

110. The powers and authorities given by this Act to the Judge in Lunacy shall extend to property within any British possession.

The Masters.[¹]

Masters in Lunacy.

111.—(1) There shall continue to be Masters in Lunacy as heretofore, and they shall, subject to the provisions of this Act and the Rules in Lunacy, execute and perform the same powers and duties as heretofore, and shall perform such other duties for the benefit of lunatics and their estates as the Lord Chancellor may direct.

(2) The powers and authorities of the Masters shall be joint and several, and they shall execute commissions and conduct inquiries connected with lunatics or their estates, and perform all other duties committed to them, either separately or together, and at such places, within such times, and in such manner as the Rules in Lunacy, and, subject thereto, as the Judge in Lunacy may by any special order direct.

(3) A Master must be a barrister of not less than ten years standing, and shall be appointed by the Lord Chancellor.

(4) A Master shall, before being capable of acting, make before the Lord Chancellor, in the manner now used, the declaration to be made by a Master set forth in the First Schedule.

(5) The Masters shall have such clerks and officers as the Lord Chancellor may, with the concurrence of the Treasury as to number and salaries, determine.

(6) The salaries of the Masters, their clerks and officers, and their expenses to the amount sanctioned by the Treasury, shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament.

Commission of inquiry.

112. A general commission of inquiry, with such variations as may be expedient, may from time to time be issued in duplicate under the Great Seal, directed to the Masters by name, jointly and severally, who shall by virtue thereof proceed, in each case of alleged lunacy concerning which the Judge in Lunacy orders them to inquire, in like manner and with all the like powers and authorities (subject to the provisions in this Act contained) as heretofore.

Special Commission may issue.

113. The Lord Chancellor may issue a commission specially to any person or persons alone or in addition to the Masters, or one of them, if upon any occasion he thinks it proper to do so; and the psovisions of this Act so far as applicable shall extend to every commission so issued specially.

Power to summon witnesses.

114. The Masters may administer any oath and take any affidavit and may summon any person to give evidence before them, and every person so summoned shall be bound to attend as required by the summons.

Expiration of Orders for the Commitment of Person.

Order for custody of person of lunatic so found to determine unless continued.

115.—(1) The medical attendant of every lunatic so found by inquisition shall, . . . . before the expiration of every . . . . period of five years after the expiration of six years from the commencement of this Act, send to the Masters a report as to the mental and bodily condition of the patient, with a certificate under his hand certifying, if it is the fact, that the patient is still of unsound mind and a proper person to be detained under care and treatment.

(2) If, before the expiration of any of the periods herein-before mentioned, such report and certificate are not sent to the Masters, they shall inquire as to the omission, and unless they are satisfied that the lunatic is still of unsound mind, the order for the commitment of the person of the lunatic as to whom such report and certificate are not sent shall determine at the expiration of such period; but nothing herein contained shall affect the commitment of the estate.

(3) A Master may, by order under his hand, extend the time within which any report and certificate under this section is to be sent to the Masters, and if the time is so extended, the order for commitment of the person of the lunatic as to whom the time is so extended shall continue in force until the expiration of the extended time, but such extended time shall not exceed six months.

(4) Where any order for commitment of the person of a lunatic has determined under this section, the Masters shall forthwith give notice of such determination to the committee of the person of the lunatic and to the person under whose care the lunatic is.

Management and Administration.

Extent of the administrative powers of the judge in lunacy.

116.—(1) [¹] The powers and provisions of this Part of this Act relating to management and administration apply:—

(a) To lunatics so found by inquisition;

(b) To lunatics not so found by inquisition for the protection or administration of whose property any order has been made before the commencement of this Act;

(d) To every person not so detained and not found a lunatic by inquisition, with regard to whom it is proved to the satisfaction of the Judge in Lunacy that such person is through mental infirmity arising from disease or age incapable of managing his affairs;

(e) To every person with regard to whom it is proved to the satisfaction of the Judge in Lunacy by the certificate of a Master, or by the report of the Commissioners, or by affidavit or otherwise, that such person is of unsound mind and incapable of managing his affairs, and that his property does not exceed two thousand pounds in value, or that the income thereof does not exceed one hundred pounds per annum;

(f) To every person with regard to whom the Judge is satisfied by affidavit or otherwise that such person is or has been a criminal lunatic and continues to be insane and in confinement.

[Sub-s. (2) rep. 8 Edw. 7. c. 47, s. 1.]

(3) Every person appointed to do any such act or exercise any such power shall be subject to the jurisdiction and authority of the Judge as if such person were the committee of the estate of a lunatic so found by inquisition.

(4) The powers of this Act relating to management and administration shall be exerciseable in the discretion of the Judge for the maintenance or benefit of the lunatic or of him and his family, or where it appears to be expedient in the due course of management of the property of the lunatic.

(5) Nothing in this Act shall subject a lunatic’s property to claims of his creditors further than the same is now subject thereto by due course of law.

Power to raise money for certain purposes.

117.—(1) The Judge may order that any property of the lunatic, whether present or future, be sold, charged, mortgaged, dealt with, or disposed of as the Judge thinks most expedient for the purpose of raising or securing, or repaying with or without interest, money which is to be or which has been applied to all or any of the purposes following:—

(a) Payment of the lunatic’s debts or engagements;

(b) Discharge of any incumbrance on his property;

(d) Payment of or provision for the expenses of his future maintenance.

(2) In case of a charge or mortgage being made under this Act for the expenses of future maintenance, the Judge may direct the same to be payable, either contingently if the interest charged is a contingent or future one, or upon the happening of the event if the interest is depending on an event which must happen, and either in a gross sum or in annual or other periodical sums, and at such times and in such manner as he thinks expedient.

Charge for permanent improvements.

118.—(1) The Judge may order that the whole or any part of any moneys expended or to be expended under his order for the permanent improvement, security, or advantage of the property of the lunatic, or of any part thereof, shall, with interest, be a charge upon the improved property or any other property of the lunatic, but so that no right of sale or foreclosure during the lifetime of the lunatic be conferred by the charge.

(2) The interest shall be kept down during the lunatic’s lifetime, out of the income of his general estate, as far as the same is sufficient to bear it.

(3) The charge may be made either to some person advancing the money, or if the money is paid out of the lunatic’s general estate, to some person as a trustee for him, as part of his personal estate.

Power to dissolve partnership.

119. Where a person being a member of a partnership becomes lunatic the Judge may, by order, dissolve the partnership.

Powers exerciseable by committee under order of judge.

120. The Judge may, by order, authorise and direct the committee of the estate of a lunatic to do all or any of the following things:—

(a) Sell any property belonging to the lunatic;

(b) Make exchange or partition of any property belonging to the lunatic or in which he is interested, and give or receive any money for equality of exchange or partition;

(d) Grant leases of any property of the lunatic for building, agricultural, or other purposes;

(e) Grant leases of minerals forming part of the lunatic’s property, whether the same have been already worked or not, and either with or without the surface or other land;

(f) Surrender any lease and accept a new lease;

(g) Accept a surrender of any lease and grant a new lease;

(h) Execute any power of leasing vested in a lunatic having a limited estate only in the property over which the power extends;

(i) Perform any contract relating to the property of the lunatic entered into by the lunatic before his lunacy;

(j) Surrender, assign, or otherwise dispose of with or without consideration any onerous property belonging to the lunatic;

(k) Enter into any agreement touching the patronage of augmented cures under the Act one George the First, chapter ten, which the lunatic might have entered into if he had been of sound mind;

(l) Exercise any power or give any consent required for the exercise of any power where the power is vested in the lunatic for his own benefit or the power of consent is in the nature of a beneficial interest in the lunatic.

Property exchanged and renewed lease to be to same uses as before.

121. Any property taken in exchange and any renewed lease accepted on behalf of a lunatic under the powers of this Act shall be to the same uses and be subject to the same trusts, charges, incumbrances, dispositions, devises, and conditions as the property given in exchange or the surrendered lease was or would but for the exchange or surrender have been subject to.

Extent of leasing power.

122.—(1) The power to authorise leases of a lunatic’s property under this Act shall extend to property of which the lunatic is tenant in tail, and every lease granted pursuant to any order under this Act shall bind the issue of the lunatic and all persons entitled in remainder and reversion expectant upon the estate tail of the lunatic including the Crown, and every person to whom from time to time the reversion expectant upon the lease belongs upon the death of the lunatic shall have the same rights and remedies against the lessee, his executors, administrators, and assigns, as the lunatic or his committee would have had.

(2) Leases authorised to be granted and accepted by or on behalf of a lunatic under this Act may be for such number of lives or such term of years, at such rent and royalties, and subject to such reservations, covenants, and conditions as the Judge approves.

(3) Fines or other payments on the renewal of leases may be paid out of the lunatic’s estate, or charged with interest on the leasehold property.

Lunatic’s interest in property not to be altered.

123.—(1) The lunatic, his heirs, executors, administrators, next of kin, devisees, legatees, and assigns, shall have the same interest in any moneys arising from any sale, mortgage, or other disposition, under the powers of this Act which may not have been applied under such powers, as he or they would have had in the property the subject of the sale, mortgage, or disposition, if no sale, mortgage, or disposition, had been made, and the surplus moneys shall be of the same nature as the property sold, mortgaged, or disposed of.

(2) Moneys received for equality of partition and exchange, or under any lease of unopened mines, and all fines, premiums, and sums of money received upon the grant or renewal of a lease, where the property the subject of the partition, exchange, or lease was real estate of the lunatic, shall, subject to the application thereof for any purposes authorised by this Act, as between the representatives of the real and personal estate of the lunatic, be considered as real estate, except in the case of fines, premiums, and sums of money received upon the grant or renewal of leases of property of which the lunatic was tenant for life, in which case the fines, premiums, and sums of money shall be personal estate of the lunatic.

(3) In order to give effect to this section the Judge may direct any money to be carried to a separate account, and may order such assurances and things to be executed and done as he thinks expedient.

Power to carry orders into effect.

124. The committee of the estate, or such person as the Judge approves, shall in the name and on behalf of the lunatic execute and do all such assurances and things for giving effect to any order under this Act as the Judge directs, and every such assurance and thing shall be valid and effectual, and shall take effect accordingly, subject only to any prior charge to which the property affected thereby at the date of the order is subject.

Admittance to copyholds.

125. Where a lunatic so found by inquisition is entitled to be admitted tenant of copyhold land, the committee of his estate may appear at one of the three next courts holden for the manor (for the holding whereof the usual notice shall be given), and there offer himself to be admitted tenant in the name and on behalf of the lunatic; and in default of his appearance, or of his acceptance of admittance, the lord or his steward may, after three courts duly holden, and proclamations thereat regularly made, at any subsequent court appoint any fit person to be attorney for the lunatic for that purpose only, and by that attorney admit the lunatic tenant of the land, according to such estate as the lunatic is legally entitled to therein.

Fines upon admittance.

126.—(1) The lord or his steward may upon the admittance impose such fine as might have been imposed if the lunatic had been of sound mind, which fine may be demanded by the lord’s bailiff or agent, by a note in writing signed by the lord or his steward, to be left with the committee of the estate, or with the tenant or occupier of the land.

(2) If the fine is not paid or tendered to the lord or his steward within three months after demand, then the lord may enter upon and hold the land, and receive the rents and profits thereof, (but without liberty to fell any timber standing thereon,) until he is thereby fully paid the fine, with his reasonable costs and charges of raising the same, and of obtaining the possession of the land, although the lunatic die before the fine and costs and charges have been raised.

(3) The lord shall yearly, on demand by the person entitled to the surplus rents and profits, after payment of the fine and costs and charges, or by the person then entitled to the land, render an account of the rents and profits received by him or on his behalf, and shall pay the surplus, if any, to the person entitled thereto.

(4) As soon as the fine and costs and charges have been fully paid, or if after the lord’s entry, the fine and costs and charges are lawfully tendered to him, then the lunatic, by the committee of his estate or other the person entitled, may enter upon and hold the land, according to his estate or interest therein; and the lord shall deliver possession thereof accordingly, and if he refuse so to do he shall make satisfaction to the person kept out of possession for all the damages which he thereby sustains, and all his costs and charges of recovering possession.

(5) If the committee pays the fine and costs and charges, then he, his executors and administrators, may enter upon and hold the land, and receive the rents and profits thereof until payment thereout of the amount disbursed upon that account, although the lunatic die before reimbursement.

(6) If the fine imposed is not warranted by the custom of the manor, or is unlawful, the lunatic may controvert its legality, as if this Act had not been passed; and no lunatic so found by inquisition shall forfeit any land for his neglect or refusal to appear at any court, or to be admitted thereto, or to pay the fine imposed upon his admittance.

Where lunacy temporary money may be applied for temporary maintenance.

127.—(1) Where it appears to the Judge that there is reason to believe that the unsoundness of mind of any lunatic so found by inquisition is in its nature temporary, and will probably be soon removed, and that it is expedient that temporary provision should be made for the maintenance of the lunatic, or of the lunatic and the members of his immediate family who are dependent upon him for maintenance, and that any sum of money arising from or being in the nature of income or of ready money belonging to the lunatic, and standing to his account with a banker or agent, or being in the hands of any person for his use, is readily available and may be safely and properly applied in that behalf, the Judge may allow thereout such amount as he thinks proper for the temporary maintenance of the lunatic, or of the lunatic and the members of his immediate family who are dependent upon him for maintenance, and may, instead of proceeding to order a grant of the custody of the estate, order or give liberty for the payment of any such sum of money as aforesaid, or any part thereof, to such person as, under the circumstances of the case, he thinks proper to intrust with the application thereof, and may direct the same to be paid to such person accordingly, and when received to be applied, and the same shall accordingly be applied, in or towards such temporary maintenance as aforesaid.

(2) The receipt in writing of the person to whom payment is to be made for any moneys payable to him by virtue of an order under this section shall be a good discharge, and every person is hereby directed to act upon and obey every such order.

(3) The person receiving any money by virtue of an order under this section shall pass an account thereof before the Masters, when required.

Committee may exercise power vested in lunatic in character of trustee or guardian.

128. Where a power is vested in a lunatic in the character of trustee or guardian, or the consent of a lunatic to the exercise of a power is necessary in the like character, or as a check upon the undue exercise of the power, and it appears to the Judge to be expedient that the power should be exercised or the consent given, the committee of the estate, in the name and on behalf of the lunatic, under an order of the Judge, made upon the application of any person interested, may exercise the power or give the consent in such manner as the order directs.

Appointment of new trustees under power to have effect of appointments by High Court, and like orders may be made as under Trustee Act, 1850.

129. Where under this Act the committee of the estate, under order of the Judge, exercises, in the name and on behalf of the lunatic, a power of appointing new trustees vested in the lunatic, the person or persons who shall, after and in consequence of the exercise of the power, be the trustee or trustees, shall have all the same rights and powers as he or they would have had if the order had been made by the High Court; and the Judge may in any such case, where it seems to him to be for the lunatic’s benefit and also expedient, make any order respecting the property subject to the trust which might have been made in the same case under the Trustee Act, 1850, or any Act amending the same, on the appointment thereunder of a new trustee or new trustees.

Temporary provision for maintenance of lunatic.

130. In any case where, pending the appointment of committees, it appears to the Masters desirable that temporary provision should be made for the expenses of the maintenance or other necessary purposes or requirements of the lunatic, or any member of his family, out of any cash or available securities belonging to him in the hands of his bankers, or of any other person, the Masters shall be at liberty by certificate to authorise such banker or other person to pay to the person to be named in such certificate such sum as they certify to be proper; and may by such certificate give any directions as to the proper application thereof for the lunatic’s benefit by that person, who shall be accountable for the same as the Masters direct.

Powers as to Property in England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Power to deal with property in England, Scotland, and Ireland.

34 & 35 Vict. c. 22, s. 68.

131.—(1) The powers of management and administration of the estates of lunatics conferred by this Act shall, without an inquisition or other proceedings in Ireland, extend to the personal property in Ireland of a lunatic so found by inquisition in England where such personal property does not exceed two thousand pounds in value or the income thereof does not exceed one hundred pounds a year; and the like powers conferred by the Lunacy Regulation (Ireland) Act, 1871, shall, without an inquisition or other proceedings in England, extend to the personal property in England of a lunatic so found by inquisition in Ireland where such personal property or the income thereof does not exceed such amount as aforesaid.

(2) Where a person has been found lunatic by inquisition in England or Ireland, and has personal property in Scotland, the committee of the estate of the lunatic shall, without cognition or other proceedings in Scotland, have all the same powers as to such property, or the income thereof, as might be exercised by a tutor at law after cognition or a duly appointed curator bonis to a person of unsound mind in Scotland.

(3) Where a tutor at law after cognition or a curator bonis has been appointed to a lunatic in Scotland, who has personal property in England or Ireland, the tutor at law or curator bonis shall, without an inquisition or other proceedings in England or Ireland, have all the same powers as to such property, or the income thereof, as might be exercised by the committee of the estate of a lunatic, so found by inquisition in England or Ireland.

(4) The powers of management and administration conferred by this Act in cases where the property of a person of unsound mind does not exceed two thousand pounds in value, or the income thereof does not exceed one hundred pounds per annum, and the powers conferred by section sixty-eight of the Lunacy Regulation (Ireland) Act, 1871, shall extend to the property in Ireland or England, as the case may be, of the lunatic where the total value of the property in England and Ireland does not exceed two thousand pounds in value, or the income thereof does not exceed one hundred pounds a year.

Power of County Court Judge.

Power to deal with property of small amount.

132.—(1) Where a reception order is made in the case of a lunatic the value of whose real and personal property is under two hundred pounds, and no relative or friend of the lunatic is willing to undertake the management of such property, any judge of county courts having jurisdiction in the place from which the lunatic is sent, may, upon the application of the clerk of the guardians, or a relieving officer of the union from which the lunatic is sent, authorise the clerk or relieving officer, or such other person as the judge by his order appoints, to take possession of and sell and realise the real and personal property of the lunatic, and to exercise all the powers which could be exercised by the legal personal representative of the lunatic if he were dead; and the receipt of the person so authorised shall be a valid discharge to any person who pays any money or delivers any property of the lunatic to such person.

(2) The judge, by whom such order is made, may by the same or any subsequent orders give such directions as he thinks fit as to the application of the property of the lunatic for his benefit or in reimbursement of such sums as may have been or may be expended by the guardians of the union for his care or relief, or of the costs or expenses incurred in relation to the lunatic by such guardians, or by the person acting under any such order as aforesaid, or the judge may, if he thinks fit, order that the whole or any part of the proceeds of the lunatic’s property be paid into the county court to the credit of an account intituled in the matter of such lunatic, and any sum so paid into court may either be invested in the manner provided by the county court rules in force for the time being, or be paid out of court from time to time to such person as the judge directs, to be held and applied for the benefit of such lunatic, or in or towards such reimbursement as aforesaid, in such manner as the judge directs.

(3) The person acting under any such order shall render an account of his dealings with the lunatic’s property to the judge by whom such order was made in such manner as the judge appoints.

Vesting Orders.

Power to transfer stock of lunatic.

133. Wher any stock is standing is the name of or is vested in a lunatic beneficially entitled thereto, or is standing in the name of or vested in a committee of the estate of a lunatic so found by inquisition, in trust for the lunatic, or as part of his property, and the committee dies intestate, or himself becomes lunatic, or is out of the jurisdiction of the High Court, or it is uncertain whether the committee is living or dead, or he neglects or refuses to transfer the stock, and to receive and pay over the dividends thereof as the Judge in Lunacy directs, then the Judge may order some fit person to transfer the stock to or into the name of a new committee or into court or otherwise, and also to receive and pay over the dividends thereof in such manner as the Judge directs.

Stock in name of lunatic out of the jurisdiction.

134. Where any stock is standing in the name of or vested in a person residing out of the jurisdiction of the High Court, the Judge in Lunacy, upon proof to his satisfaction that the person has been declared lunatic, and that his personal estate has been vested in a person appointed for the management thereof, according to the law of the place where he is residing, may order some fit person to make such transfer of the stock or any part thereof to or into the name of the person so appointed or otherwise, and also to receive and pay over the dividends thereof, as the judge thinks fit.

Power to vest lands and release contingent right of lunatic trustee or mortgagee.

135.—(1) When a lunatic is solely or jointly seised or possessed of any land upon trust or by way of mortgage the Judge in Lunacy may by order vest such land in such person or persons for such estate, and in such manner, as he directs.

(2) When a lunatic is solely or jointly entitled to a contingent right in any land upon trust or by way of mortgage, the Judge may by order release such hereditaments from the contingent right, and dispose of the same to such person or persons as the Judge directs.

(3) [¹ An order under sub-sections (1) and (2) shall have the same effect as if the lunatic had been sane, and, if solely seised, possessed, or entitled as aforesaid, had executed, or, if jointly seised, possessed, or entitled as aforesaid with any other person or persons, he and such other person or persons had executed a deed conveying the land for the estate named in the order, or releasing or disposing of the contingent right.]

(4) In all cases where an order can be made under this section the Judge may, if it is more convenient, appoint a person to convey the land or release the contingent right, and a conveyance or release by such person in conformity with the order shall have the same effect as an order under sub-sections (1) and (2).

(5) Where an order under this section vesting any copyhold land in any person or persons is made with the consent of the lord or lady of the manor, such land shall vest accordingly without surrender or admittance.

(6) Where an order is made appointing any person or persons to convey any copyhold land, such person or persons shall execute and do all assurances and things for completing the assurance of the lands; and the lord and lady of the manor shall, subject to the customs of the manor and the usual payments, be bound to make admittance to the land, and to do all other acts for completing the assurance thereof, as if the persons in whose place an appointment is made were free from disability and had executed and done such assurances and things.

Power to vest right to transfer stock and sue for chose in action.

136.—(1) Where a lunatic is solely entitled to any stock or chose in action upon trust or by way of mortgage, the Judge in Lunacy may by order vest in any person or persons the right to transfer or call for a transfer of the stock, or to receive the dividends thereof, or to sue for the chose in action.

(2) In the case of any person or persons jointly entitled with a lunatic to any stock or chose in action upon trust or by way of mortgage, the Judge may make an order vesting the right to transfer or call for a transfer of the stock, or to receive the dividends thereof, or to sue for the chose in action either in such person or persons alone or jointly with any other person or persons.

(3) When any stock is standing in the name of a deceased person, whose personal representative is a lunatic, or when a chose in action is vested in a lunatic as the personal representative of a deceased person, the Judge may make an order vesting the right to transfer or call for a transfer of the stock, or to receive the dividends thereof, or to sue for the chose in action in any person or persons he may appoint.

(4) In all cases where an order can be made under this section, the Judge may, if it is more convenient, appoint some proper person to make or join in making the transfer.

(5) The person or persons in whom the right to transfer or call for a transfer of any stock is vested, may execute and do all powers of attorney, assurances, and things to complete the transfer to himself or themselves or any other person or persons according to the order, and the Bank and all other companies and their officers and all other persons shall be bound to obey every order under this section according to its tenor.

(6) After notice in writing of an order under this section, it shall not be lawful for the Bank or any other company to transfer any stock to which the order relates or to pay any dividends thereon except in accordance with the order.

Person to be appointed to transfer.

137. Where a person is appointed to make or join in making a transfer of stock, such person shall be some proper officer of the Bank, or the company or society whose stock is to be transferred.

Charity trustees.

138. The powers conferred by this Act as to vesting orders may be exercised for vesting any land, stock, or chose in action in the trustee or trustees of any charity or society over which the High Court would have jurisdiction upon suit duly instituted, whether the appointment of such trustee or trustees was made by instrument under a power or by the High Court under its general or statutory jurisdiction.

Declarations and directions.

139. The Judge in Lunacy may make declarations and give directions concerning the manner in which the right to any stock or chose in action vested under the provisions of this Act is to be exercised.

[S. 140 rep. 56 & 57 Vict. c. 53, s 51.]

Power to appoint new trustees.

141. In every case in which the Judge in Lunacy has jurisdiction to order a conveyance or transfer of land or stock or to make a vesting order, he may also make an order appointing a new trustee or new trustees.

Costs.

142. The Judge in Lunacy may order the costs of and incident to obtaining an order under the provisions of this Act as to vesting orders and carrying the same into effect to be paid out of the land or personal estate or the income thereof in respect of which the order is made, or in such manner as the Judge may think fit.

Saving of power of High Court.

143. The provisions of this Act as to vesting orders shall not affect the jurisdiction of the High Court as to any lunatic trustee or mortgagee who is an infant.

Orders of Judge in Lunacy and Certificates of Masters.

Office copies to be evidence.

144. Every office copy of the whole of an order or report confirmed by fiat purporting to be signed by a Master, and sealed or stamped with the seal of the Masters’ office, and every office copy of a certificate in lunacy shall at all times, and on behalf of all persons, and whether for the purposes of this Act or otherwise, be admitted as evidence of the order, report, or certificate of which it purports to be a copy, without any further proof thereof.

Money orders to be acted upon.

145. Where an order relates to the payment, transfer, carrying over, or depositing of any cash, stocks, funds, annuities, securities, or other effects into or in court to the credit of the matter of a lunatic, or to the payment, transfer, or carrying over, or other disposal by the Paymaster-General of any cash, stocks, funds, annuities, securities, or other effects standing in his name or deposited in his custody to the credit of the matter of a lunatic, or of any cash, stocks, funds, annuities, securities, or other effects to or in which a lunatic is entitled or beneficially interested, and which are not standing to the credit of a cause or matter depending in the High Court, the Paymaster-General and the Bank, and all other persons, shall act upon an office copy of the order.

Transfers to be binding.

146. All transfers and payments made in pursuance of this Act under an order or a Master’s certificate shall be valid and binding on all persons.

Forgery of signature of master or seal of master’s office.

147. If any person forges the signature of a Master, or forges or counterfeits the seal of the Masters’ Office, or knowingly concurs in using any such forged or counterfeited signature or seal, or tenders in evidence any document with a false or counterfeit signature of a Master, or with a false or counterfeit seal, knowing the same signature or seal to be false or counterfeit, every such person shall be guilty of felony, and shall upon conviction be liable to penal servitude for a term not exceeding seven years, or to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding three years with or without hard labour.

Percentage and Fees.

Percentage and fees.

148. [¹] —(1.) The Lord Chancellor, with the concurrence of the Treasury, may make rules fixing the percentage and fees payable in proceedings relating to lunatics and their estates, and regulating the mode in which the same are to be ascertained and paid.

(2) Save as otherwise provided by the Rules in Lunacy the percentage and fees in lunacy shall be subject to the rules contained in section twenty-six of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1875.

38 & 39 Vict. c. 77.

(3) The percentage, or a proper proportionate part thereof (as the case may require), shall be charged upon the estate of a lunatic, and be payable thereout, although before payment thereof he die, or the inquisition be superseded, or be vacated and discharged on a traverse; but in either of the two last-mentioned cases the Judge in Lunacy may, if he thinks fit, remit or reduce the amount of the sum to be paid.

(4) Where it is made to appear to the Judge in Lunacy that the property of a lunatic does not exceed seven hundred pounds in value, or that the income thereof does not exceed fifty pounds per annum, he may order (if he thinks fit) that no fee shall be taken, or percentage levied, in relation to the proceedings in the matter or the property, as from the date of the order or such other time as he directs, during the continuance of the lunacy or until further order.

[S. 149 rep. 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 29.]

Part V.

The Commissioners in Lunacy.

Constitution of the Commission.

The Commissioners in Lunacy.

150.—(1) There shall continue to be Commissioners in Lunacy and such of them as are qualified for appointment by being medical practitioners or barristers, shall be entitled to receive salaries.

(2) The salaries of the paid Commissioners and the expenses of the Commissioners to the amount sanctioned by the Treasury, shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament.

(3) A Commissioner shall not, so long as he remains Commissioner and receives any salary in respect of his office, accept, hold, or carry on any other office or situation, or any profession or employment, from which any profit is derived.

Vacancies among the Commissioners may be filled.

151.—(1) As often as a Commissioner dies, or is removed from his office, or is disqualified, or resigns, or refuses or becomes unable through illness or otherwise to act, the Lord Chancellor may appoint a person to be a Commissioner in his place.

(2) Every person appointed in the place of a medical practitioner shall be a medical practitioner, and every person appointed in the place of a barrister shall be a practising barrister of not less than five years standing, and every person appointed in the place of any other Commissioner shall be neither a medical practitioner nor a practising barrister. Provided that a medical or legal Commissioner may upon resigning his office be appointed to fill any vacancy among the unpaid Commissioners, and if so appointed he may, upon the request of any four of the Commissioners, perform any duty which he might have performed before his resignation. Provided also that the secretary for the time being of the Commissioners shall be eligible to be a Commissioner in the place of a barrister.

(3) In case of the temporary illness or disability of a medical or legal Commissioner, the Lord Chancellor may, on the recommendation of the Commissioners, appoint a person qualified to be a medical or legal Commissioner to be his substitute so long as the illness or disability continues, and the substitute may exercise all the powers of the person for whom he acts.

(4) The Commissioners for the time being may act notwithstanding any vacancy in their body.

(5) Every Commissioner hereafter appointed shall, before he acts as Commissioner, make before the Lord Chancellor, or before any three Commissioners qualified to act, the declaration to be made by a Commissioner set forth in the First Schedule.

Licences and instruments to be sealed.

152.—(1) All licences, orders, and instruments granted or made, or issued, or authorised by the Commissioners, in pursuance of this Act, except such orders or instruments as are to be made or signed and sealed by one Commissioner or two or more Commissioners, shall be sealed with the seal of the Commission.

(2) All such licences, orders, and instruments, or copies thereof, purporting to be sealed with the seal of the commission, shall be received as evidence of the same respectively, and of the same respectively having been granted, made, issued, or authorised by the Commissioners, without any further proof thereof.

(3) A licence, order, or instrument, or copy thereof, shall not be valid, or have any force or effect, unless it is so sealed.

Appointment of permanent chairman and mode of voting.

153.—(1) There shall be a permanent chairman of the Commissioners.

(2) If a permanent chairman dies, or declines, or becomes incapable to act as chairman, or ceases to be a Commissioner, the Commissioners, or any five of them at a meeting specially summoned for the purpose, shall select a member of their body, not being a paid Commissioner, to be permanent chairman.

(3) If the chairman is absent from a meeting, a majority of the members present may elect a chairman for that meeting.

(4) Questions shall be decided by a majority of votes.

(5) The chairman of the meeting shall have a vote, and in the event of an equality of votes he shall have a casting vote.

The secretary to the Commissioners.

154.—(1) There shall be a secretary to the Commissioners.

(2) The secretary for the time being may be removed by the Lord Chancellor on the application of the Commissioners.

(3) If the office of secretary is vacant, the Commissioners, with the approbation of the Lord Chancellor, may fill the vacancy.

(4) The secretary shall, in the performance of his duties, be subject to the inspection, direction, and control of the Commissioners. His salary shall be of such amount as the Treasury, with the concurrence of the Lord Chancellor, determines.

(5) Every person appointed secretary shall be a barrister of at least seven years standing, and shall for all purposes be deemed to be a permanent civil servant of the state.

Clerks to Commissioners.

155.—(1) The Commissioners may appoint such number of clerks as the Treasury sanctions.

(2) The clerks to the Commissioners shall be paid such salaries as the Treasury assigns. The salaries of the Commissioners, secretary, and clerks, and their expenses, to the amount sanctioned by the Treasury, shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament.

Superannuation allowances.

22 Vict. c. 26. 50 & 51 Vict. c. 67.

156. As respects superannuation allowances, the paid Commissioners and the secretary and clerks shall be subject to the provisions of the Superannuation Act, 1859, and the Superannuation Act, 1887.

Secretary and clerks to make a declaration.

157. Every secretary or clerk shall, before he acts, make before any one of the Commissioners the declaration to be made by the secretary and clerks of the Commissioners set forth in the First Schedule.

Disqualification of Commissioners and their secretary and clerks.

158.—(1) A person shall not be qualified to be a Commissioner or secretary or clerk of the Commissioners if he is, or within one year prior to his appointment has been, interested in a licensed house.

(2) If any Commissioner or the secretary or any clerk of the Commissioners becomes interested in a licensed house, he shall be disqualified to hold his office.

(3) Any disqualified person continuing to act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Meetings and Procedure.

Commissioners to hold meetings for granting licences.

159.—(1) The Commissioners, or some five of them, shall hold quarterly meetings at their office, or at such other place as the Lord Chancellor may direct, on the first Wednesday in the months of February, May, July, and November in every year, to receive applications for licences for houses for the reception of lunatics within the immediate jurisdiction of the Commissioners.

(2) In case on any such occasion five Commissioners are not present, the meeting shall take place on the following Wednesday, and so on weekly until five Commissioners assemble.

(3) The Commissioners assembled at every such meeting shall have power to adjourn the meeting from time to time and to such place as they think fit.

(4) Any five of the Commissioners may, at any other time, at a meeting duly summoned, receive applications for licences.

Provision for calling meetings.

160.—(1) If a Commissioner by writing under his hand requires the secretary to call a meeting of the Commissioners for a purpose specified in the writing, or for general business, the secretary shall call a meeting.

(2) The secretary shall give to the Commissioners, or such of them as are in England and have an address known to the secretary, twenty-four hours notice of the place, day, and hour of the meeting, and of the purpose for which it is to be held.

(3) Any three Commissioners assembled at a meeting shall be a quorum, and shall constitute a board, except where by this Act five Commissioners are required to be present at any meeting.

(4) Every meeting shall, as far as circumstances admit, be held at the office of the Commission.

Power to make orders and rules to regulate procedure.

161.—(1) The Commissioners, or any five of them present at any quarterly or other meeting, may, by resolution sealed with their seal or entered in a book kept for the purpose and signed by five at least of the Commissioners present at the meeting, make orders and rules for regulating the duties of the Commissioners and of their secretary, clerks, and servants, and for the transaction of the business of the Commission.

(2) The secretary shall give to each Commissioner, so far as circumstances admit, not less than seven days notice of a meeting for the purpose of making orders or rules, and shall state in the notice the purpose of the meeting.

Reports and Records.

Reports to be made to the Lord Chancellor.

162.—(1) The Commissioners shall, at the expiration of every six months, report to the Lord Chancellor the number of visits they have made and the number of patients they have seen.

(2) They shall also in or before the month of June in every year, make to the Lord Chancellor a report made up to the end of the preceding year of the condition of the institutions for lunatics; and other places visited by them, and of the care of the patients therein, with such other particulars as they think deserving notice.

(3) They shall lay copies of the reports to be made under this section before Parliament within one month after the same have been made if Parliament is then sitting, and, if not, within twenty-one days after the commencement of the next session.

Part VI.

Visitors of Lunatics.

The Chancery Visitors.

Appointment and qualification of Chancery Visitors.

163.—(1) There shall continue to be medical and legal visitors of lunatics so found by inquisition, and they are in this Act referred to as the Chancery Visitors.

(2) The Lord Chancellor may, when a vacancy occurs in the office of medical visitor or legal visitor, appoint, by writing under his hand, a fit person, being a medical practitioner in actual practice, to succeed a medical visitor, and a fit person, being a barrister of not less than five years’ standing, to succeed a legal visitor.

(3) The visitors shall have such clerks and officers as the Lord Chancellor may, with the concurrence of the Treasury as to number and salaries, determine.

(4) The salaries of the Chancery Visitors, their clerks and officers, and their expenses to the amount sanctioned by the Treasury, shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament.

Tenure of office by Chancery Visitors.

164. The Chancery Visitors may be removed by the Lord Chancellor in case of misconduct or neglect in the discharge of their duties, or of their being disabled from performing the same, and they shall not be engaged in the practice of their respective professions.

Visitors not to be interested in licensed houses.

165. A person shall not be appointed a Chancery Visitor if he is or has been within the two years preceding his appointment directly or indirectly interested in any licensed house; and if any person after his appointment becomes so interested, his appointment shall become void, and thereupon his salary shall cease.

Masters to be ex-officio visitors.

166. The Masters for the time being shall by virtue of their office be visitors of lunatics so found by inquisition, jointly with the Chancery Visitors.

The Visitors and Masters to form a board.

167.—(1) The Chancery Visitors and the Masters, or so many of them, not being less than three in number, as may from time to time be able, consistently with the discharge of their other duties, to attend shall from time to time form themselves into a board for their mutual guidance and direction on matters connected with the visiting of lunatics.

(2) The board may report to the Lord Chancellor upon any matter connected with the duties of the Chancery Visitors or of the board, as they think proper.

Medical or legal visitor may appoint a substitute.

168.—(1) Where a medical or a legal Chancery Visitor is temporarily prevented from discharging his duty by illness or unavoidable absence, but not otherwise, he may, with the approbation of the Lord Chancellor, appoint a medical practitioner in actual practice, or a barrister of not less than five years’ standing (as the case may require), to act in his stead during his illness or unavoidable absence.

(2) The medical practitioner or the barrister so appointed shall, while his appointment remains in force, have, perform, and execute all the powers, duties, and authorities belonging to the office of medical or legal visitor (as the case may be) with full validity and effect to all intents and purposes.

Visiting Committees of Asylums.

Constitution of visiting committee.

169.—(1) For every asylum there shall be a visiting committee appointed annually by the local authority, consisting of not less than seven members.

(2) The visiting committee of a district asylum shall be constituted of the number of members fixed by the agreement under which the asylum is provided.

(3) Where there is more than one asylum, the local authority may appoint one committee for the management and control of all the asylums, and such committee shall appoint a sub-committee for each separate asylum, and may delegate to that sub-committee such powers and duties as the committee from time to time think fit.

51 & 52 Vict. c. 41.

(4) Where a county borough has contributed towards the cost of any county asylum, the council of the borough may, if they so desire, appoint to be members of the visiting committee of the asylum such number of members of the council as may be agreed upon, or in default of agreement be determined by the Commissioners under the Local Government Act, 1888, or after they have ceased to hold office, by arbitration under that Act. Such appointment shall be in substitution for any appointment previously made on the part of the borough.

(5) Where a borough, not being a county borough, has contributed towards the cost of any county asylum, and the representatives of the borough on the county council are not entitled to vote for the appointment by the council of visitors of the asylum, the council of the borough may appoint two persons to be members of the committee.

(6) During the continuance of a contract for the reception of the pauper lunatics of a county borough or borough specified in the Fourth Schedule into a county asylum, the council of the borough shall appoint a visiting committee to visit the lunatics sent from such county borough or borough in the asylum.

Mode of election of visiting committee.

170. Unless some other day is appointed by the standing orders of the local authority, the visiting committee shall be appointed at the quarterly meeting of the local authority in November.

Vacancies to be filled up.

171.—(1) If a visitor dies or resigns, or becomes incapable or disqualified to act, the authority by whom he was appointed shall, as soon as possible, appoint in his place some qualified person, and the new appointment shall be made in the same manner as the annual election of visitors.

(2) The continuing members of a visiting committee may act notwithstanding any vacancy in the body.

Duration of office.

172.—(1) A visiting committee shall hold office until the first meeting of their successors.

(2) If default is made in electing a visiting committee, the visiting committee last elected shall continue in office as if they had been duly re-elected.

Examination of accounts.

173. The visiting committee of every asylum shall previously to the month of June in every year, examine the accounts of the treasurer and clerk of the asylum, and shall report the same to the next meeting of the local authority, or of each local authority to whom the asylum wholly or in part belongs.

Members of visiting committee not to be interested.

174.—(1) A member of a visiting committee shall not be interested either in his own name or in the name of any other person in any contract entered into or work done for the committee, and shall not derive any profit or emolument whatsoever from the funds of the asylum.

(2) This provision shall not extend to any interest which a member of a visiting committee may have by reason of his being a shareholder in a company which has entered into any contract with or done any work for the visiting committee, but he shall not be entitled to vote in respect of such contract or work.

Meetings of visiting committee.

175.—(1) The provisions of section eighty-two of the Local Government Act, 1888, with respect to the proceedings of committees of county councils shall apply to the proceedings of every visiting committee appointed wholly or partly by a county council, and the chairman of such committee may be elected accordingly.

(2) To other visiting committees the following provisions shall apply:—

(a) The members of the committee shall within one month after their election meet at some convenient place, to be named in a notice in writing given by two or more of such members, or by the clerk of the outgoing committee by the direction of two or more of such members;

(b) Notices of meetings shall be given to each member personally, or left at his place of abode, or sent by post seven days at least before the time appointed for the meeting;

(d) The chairman shall preside at all meetings at which he is present. In case of his absence from any meeting the members present shall elect one of their number to be chairman of the meeting;

(e) Any meeting may be adjourned from time to time and from place to place;

(f) The committee shall meet as often as they may think fit;

(g) A meeting may be adjourned by two members; for all other purposes three members shall be a quorum;

(h) Every question shall be decided by a majority of the votes of the members present, and in the event of an equality of votes the chairman shall have a second or casting vote;

(i) The clerk of the committee shall, when required in writing by the chairman or any two members of the committee, or by the manager of the asylum, and the chairman may, whenever he thinks fit, summon a meeting of the committee.

Clerk to visiting committee.

176.—(1) Every visiting committee shall appoint a clerk (who may also be the clerk to the asylum) at such salary as the committee think fit, and a clerk so appointed may be discharged, and in the event of a vacancy in the office a new clerk may be appointed. The clerk to the visiting committee shall, unless he be sooner discharged, continue in office so long as the committee continue in office.

(2) A visiting committee may sue and be sued in the name of their clerk, and an action by or against a visiting committee shall not abate by the death or removal of the clerk, but the clerk for the time being shall always be deemed the plaintiff or defendant in the action.

Visitors of Licensed Houses.

Justices to appoint visitors.

177.—(1) The justices of every county and quarter sessions borough not within the immediate jurisdiction of the Commissioners shall, whether there is a licensed house within the county or borough or not, annually appoint three or more justices, and also one medical practitioner, or more, to act as visitors of licensed houses within the county or borough and otherwise for the purposes of this Act.

(2) The visitors shall at their first meeting make before a justice the declaration required by this Act to be made by a Commissioner, with the necessary modifications.

(3) A person shall not be qualified to be a visitor or clerk, or assistant clerk to any visitor, who is or within one year prior to his appointment has been interested in a licensed house.

(4) If a visitor or a clerk or assistant clerk to any visitors becomes interested in a licensed house he shall be disqualified to hold his office.

(5) Any disqualified person continuing to act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

(6) In case of the death, inability, disqualification, resignation, or refusal to act of any visitor, the justices of the county or borough may appoint a visitor in his place.

(7) The annual appointment of visitors shall be made by justices of a county at their Michaelmas quarter sessions, and by justices of a borough at special sessions, to be held in the month of October; other appointments may be made by justices of a county at any quarter sessions and by justices of a borough at special sessions to be held at the same time as any quarter sessions.

(8) In any county or borough in which no appointment of visitors has been made before the commencement of this Act the first appointment shall be made, in the case of a county, at the quarter sessions next after the commencement of this Act, and in the case of a borough, at special sessions to be held at the same time as the next quarter sessions.

(9) The clerk to the justices of a quarter sessions borough shall forthwith notify to the clerk of the peace of the borough the names, places of abode, and occupations or professions of all visitors appointed by the justices.

(10) A list of the names, places of abode, and occupations, or professions of all visitors of licensed houses shall, within fourteen days from the date of their appointment, be published by the clerk of the peace of the county or borough for which they are appointed in a local newspaper, and shall, within three days from the date of their appointment, be sent by the clerk of the peace to the Commissioners.

(11) Every clerk of the peace making default in publishing and sending to the Commissioners the list of visitors within the time hereby limited, shall for every default be liable to a penalty not exceeding two pounds.

(12) Every visitor, being a medical practitioner, shall be entitled to such remuneration for services rendered under this Act as the justices of the county or borough may approve.

Clerk to visitors; his duties and remuneration.

178.—(1) The clerk of the peace or some other person to be appointed by the justices for the county or borough shall act as clerk to the visitors.

(2) The clerk to the visitors shall, at the first meeting of the visitors, make the declaration required by this Act to be made by the secretary of the Commissioners with the necessary modification, such declaration to be made before one of the visitors, being a justice.

(3) The name, place of abode, occupation, and profession of the clerk to the visitors (whether he is the clerk of the peace or any other person), shall within fourteen days after the appointment, be published by the clerk of the peace for the county or borough in some local newspaper, and shall within three days from the date of the appointment be communicated by the said clerk of the peace to the Commissioners.

(4) Every clerk of the peace making default in either of the respects aforesaid shall for every such default be liable to a penalty not exceeding two pounds.

(5) Every clerk to the visitors shall be allowed such salary or remuneration for his services as the justices for the county or borough direct.

Provision for assistants to the clerk of the visitors.

179.—(1) If the clerk to any visitors at any time desires to employ an assistant in the execution of the duties of his office, he shall certify his desire and the name of the assistant to one of the visitors, being a justice.

(2) If the visitor approves of the assistant, the assistant shall make before the visitor the declaration to be made by assistants to the clerk to the visitors in the First Schedule.

(3) Thereafter the clerk may, at his own cost, employ the assistant.

Consent of recorder.

180. A visitor or clerk shall not be appointed by the justices of a borough without the consent in writing of the recorder of the borough.

Meetings of visitors.

181.—(1) The visitors shall meet at such times and places as they may think proper.

(2) The clerk to the visitors shall, upon the direction of any two visitors, call a meeting of the visitors at such time and place as the two visitors may appoint.

(3) The times and places of meetings shall be kept secret, and each meeting shall be held privately and so that no manager or person interested in or employed about or connected with any house to be visited shall have notice of any intended visit.

Payment of expenses of visitors of licensed houses.

182. The expenses incurred by or under the order of any visitors of licensed houses in proceedings under this Act shall be paid out of the county or borough fund.

Part VII.

Visitation.

Duties of Chancery Visitors.

Duties of Chancery Visitors.

183.—(1) The Chancery Visitors shall visit lunatics so found by inquisition at such times, and in such rotation and manner, and make such inquiries and investigations as to their care and treatment and mental and bodily health, and the arrangements for their maintenance and comfort, and otherwise respecting them as the Rules in Lunacy, or as any special order of the Judge in Lunacy in any particular case, shall from time to time direct.

(2) Provided that every lunatic shall be personally visited and seen by one of the Chancery Visitors twice at least in every year, and such visits shall be so regulated as that the interval between successive visits to any such lunatic shall in no case exceed eight months.

(3) Provided also, that every lunatic resident in a private house shall, during the two years next following inquisition, be visited at least four times in every year.

Chancery Visitors to visit alleged lunatics.

184.—(1) The Chancery Visitors shall also visit such persons alleged to be lunatics, and shall make such inquiries and reports in reference to them as the Judge in Lunacy directs, and at the expiration of every six months they shall report to the Lord Chancellor the number of visits made, the number of patients seen, and the number of miles travelled during such months, and shall on the first of January in each year make a return to the Lord Chancellor of all sums received by them for travelling expenses, or upon any other account.

(2) A copy of every report and return under this section shall be laid before Parliament on or before the first of February in each year, if Parliament be then sitting, and if not, within twenty-one days next after the commencement of the next session.

Chancery Visitors to report to Lord Chancellor.

185.—(1) The Chancery Visitors shall respectively, within a convenient time after each visit, make a report in writing of the state of mind and bodily health and of the general condition and also of the care and treatment of each person visited, which reports shall, annually or oftener, as the Lord Chancellor directs or the board of visitors think expedient, be submitted to the Lord Chancellor.

(2) The Chancery Visitors respectively shall make separate or special reports on any case to the Lord Chancellor as and when they or the board of visitors think expedient, and in particular shall report to him, without delay, any instance in which, on proceeding to visit, they have been unable to discover the residence of or have been by any other circumstance prevented from actually seeing on that occasion the lunatic whom they intended to visit.

Reports to be kept secret.

186.—(1) The reports of the Chancery Visitors shall be filed and kept secret in their office, and shall not be open to the inspection of any person save the members of the board of visitors, and the Judge in Lunacy and such persons as he specially appoints.

(2) All the reports relating to any particular patient shall be destroyed on his death, and shall also be destroyed on the inquisition in his case being superseded, or being vacated and discharged on a traverse, unless a Judge in Lunacy, within fourteen days after the supersedeas, or the vacating and discharge on a traverse, specially orders that the same be not destroyed until the lunatic’s death.

Lunatics in Asylums.

Visits by Commissioners.

187.—(1) Two or more Commissioners, of whom one shall be a medical practitioner and one a barrister, shall once at least in each year visit every asylum and shall inquire—

(a) Whether the provisions of the law have been carried out;

(i) As to the construction of the building;

(ii) As to visitation;

(iii) As to management;

(iv) As to the regularity of the admission and discharge of patients;

(b) Whether divine service is performed;

(d) As to the classification of patients and the number of attendants on each class;

(e) As to the occupations and amusements of the patients, and their effects;

(f) As to the bodily and mental condition of the pauper patients when first admitted;

(g) As to the dietary of pauper patients;

(h) As to such other matters as to the visiting Commissioners seem fit.

(2) Any one or more of the Commissioners may at any time visit any asylum with the like powers as are by this section given to two or more Commissioners.

Visits by visiting committee.

188. At least two members of the visiting committee shall together, once at least in every two months, inspect every part of the asylum, and see every patient therein, so as to give everyone, as far as possible, full opportunity of complaint, and examine the order and certificate or certificates for the admission of every lunatic admitted since the last visitation and the general books kept in the asylum; and shall enter in the visitors book any remarks they think proper in regard to the condition and management of the asylum and the lunatics therein, and shall sign the book upon every visit.

Visits to lunatics received under a contract.

189.—(1) During the continuance of a contract for the reception of the pauper lunatics of a county borough or other borough in a county asylum not less than two members of the visiting committee of the borough appointed for the purpose shall together, at least once in every six months, visit the asylum and see and examine the lunatics received under the contract, and shall report the result of their visit to the council of the borough.

(2) The visitors may, if they think fit, be accompanied by a medical practitioner who is not an officer of the asylum, and they may by order direct payment to such medical practitioner of such a sum as they think fit for his services, and such sum shall upon the production of the order be paid to the medical practitioner by the treasurer of the borough.

(3) Every report under this section shall be entered among the records of the council of the borough, and may be inspected by the Commissioners, and the Commissioners may, if they think fit, require the town clerk of the borough to transmit to them a copy of any such report.

Reports by visiting committee.

190.—(1) The visiting committee of every ayslum shall in every year lay before each local authority to which the asylum belongs, at their quarterly meeting in November, or at such other time as the local authority appoints, a report in writing of the state and condition of the asylum, and as to its sufficiency to provide the necessary accommodation, and as to its management and the conduct of the officers and servants and the care of the patients therein.

(2) The committee may in the report make such remarks in relation to any matters connected with the asylum as they think fit.

Lunatics in Hospitals and Licensed Houses.

Visits of the Commissioners to licensed houses and hospitals.

191.—(1) Every hospital and licensed house may at any time, by day or night, be visited by any one or more of the Commissioners.

(2) Every licensed house within the immediate jurisdiction of the Commissioners shall be visited six times a year (namely)—

(a) Four times by not less than two Commissioners, of whom one shall be a medical practitioner and one a barrister; and

(b) Twice by one or more of the Commissioners.

(3) Every licensed house not within the immediate jurisdiction of the Commissioners shall be visited twice a year by not less than two Commissioners, of whom one shall be a medical practitioner and one a barrister.

(4) Every hospital shall be visited once a year by not less than two Commissioners, of whom one shall be a medical practitioner and one a barrister.

(5) The visits of the Commissioners shall be made without previous notice.

(6) Every visit shall be made on such day or days, and at such hours, and for such length of time, as the visiting Commissioners or Commissioner may, subject to any direction of the Commissioners, think fit.

(7) The Lord Chancellor, on a representation by the Commissioners setting forth the expediency of the alteration, may by writing under his hand direct that during a specified period, or until the direction is revoked, the Commissioners shall not be required—

(a) To visit a house licensed by justices more than once a year;

(b) To visit a house licensed by the Commissioners and not receiving pauper patients more than twice a year.

Inspection of licence.

192. The visiting Commissioners at their first visit to a house licensed by justices after the grant or renewal of the licence shall examine the licence, and if the same is in conformity with this Act shall sign the same, or if it is informal shall enter in the visitors book in what respect it is informal.

Visits of visitors to licensed houses.

193.—(1) Every licensed house within the jurisdiction of visitors appointed by justices may at any time, by day or night, be visited by one or more of the visitors.

(2) Every such house shall be visited—

(a) Four times a year by not less than two of the visitors, of whom one shall be a medical practitioner; and

(b) Twice a year by one or more of the visitors.

Inspections and inquiries.

194.—(1) The visiting Commissioners and visitors shall, at every visit to a hospital and licensed house which they are by this Act required to make, and any one or more of the Commissioners or visitors may at any other visit do all or any of the following things:

(a) Inspect any or every part of the building where lunatics are received, and every building communicating therewith or detached therefrom, but not separated by ground belonging to any other person, and every part of the ground and appurtenances held, used, or occupied therewith:

(b) See every patient and inquire whether any patient is under restraint, and why:

(d) Consider the observations made in the visitors book:

(e) Enter in the visitors book a minute of the condition of the house, of the patients therein, and the number of patients under restraint, with the reasons thereof:

(f) Inquire—

When divine service is performed, and to what number of patients, and its effect;

What occupations and amusements are provided for the patients, and the results thereof;

How the patients are classified;

As to the condition of the pauper patients when first admitted;

As to the diet of the pauper patients;

As to the moneys paid to the manager on account of any lunatic under his care;

As to such other matters as may in their opinion require investigation.

(2) The result of the foregoing inspections and inquiries, with such observations as may be thought proper, shall be entered in the visitors book.

(3) Each visiting Commissioner or visitor may at any visit enter in the patients book such observations as he thinks fit as to the state of mind or body of any patient, and any irregularity which exists in any order or certificates, and also whether the suggestions (if any) made at any previous visit have been attended to, and any observations which may be thought proper.

Managers of hospitals and licensed houses to show every part and every patient to the visiting Commissioners and visitors.

195.—(1) The manager of every hospital or licensed house shall show to each Commissioner and visitor visiting the same every part thereof, and every person therein detained as a lunatic.

(2) Every manager of a hospital or licensed house who conceals or attempts to conceal, or refuses or wilfully neglects to show, any part of the building, or any building communicating therewith or detached therefrom, but not separated as aforesaid, or any part of the ground or appurtenances held, used, or occupied therewith, or any person detained, or being therein, from any one or more of the visiting Commissioners or visitors, or from any person authorised under this Act to visit and inspect the hospital or house, or the patients therein or any of them, or who does not give full and true answers to the best of his knowledge to all questions which any visiting Commissioner or visitor asks in the execution of his office, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Books and documents to be produced to visiting Commissioners and visitors.

196.—(1) The manager of every hospital or licensed house shall lay before the visiting Commissioners or Commissioner, or the visitors or visitor, at each visit—

(a) A list of all the patients then in the hospital or house (distinguishing pauper patients from other patients, and males from females, and specifying such as are deemed curable):

(b) The several books by this Act or any Rules under this Act required to be kept by the manager and by the medical officer of a hospital or licensed house:

(d) In the case of a licensed house the licence then in force:

(e) All other orders, certificates, documents, and papers relating to any of the patients at any time received into the hospital or licensed house which may be required to be produced.

(2) Each visiting Commissioner or visitor shall sign the said books as having been produced.

Entries in the patients book as to doubtful patients.

197.—(1) Every Commissioner visiting a house licensed by justices shall carefully consider and give special attention to the state of mind of any patient, as to the propriety of whose detention there is a doubt or as to whose sanity their attention is specially called, and shall, if the state of mind of such patient is considered doubtful, and the propriety of his detention requires further consideration, make and sign a minute thereof in the patients book.

(2) A copy of every such minute shall, within two clear days after the same has been made, be sent by the manager of the house to the clerk of the visitors of the house, and the clerk shall forthwith communicate the same to the visitors, or some two of them (of whom one shall be a medical practitioner), and the visitors shall thereupon immediately visit the patient and act as they think fit.

(3) Every manager who omits to send a copy, as herein-before directed, of every such last-mentioned minute, and every clerk who neglects to communicate the same to two of the visitors as aforesaid, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Visits to Single Patients.

Annual visit to single patient.

198. One or more of the Commissioners shall once at least in every year visit every unlicensed house in which a single patient is detained as a lunatic and inquire into and report to the Commissioners on the treatment and state of bodily and mental health of the patient.

Power to visit single patients, and report.

199.—(1) Any one Commissioner, on the direction of the Commissioners, or of any two of them (of whom the one Commissioner may be one), may at all reasonable times visit a single patient and inquire into and report to the Commissioners or the Lord Chancellor on the treatment and state of health, both bodily and mental, of the patient, and as to the moneys paid on his account.

(2) Any one or more of the visitors appointed for any county or borough shall, upon the request in writing of the Commissioners, or any two of them, have the like power as regards any single patient detained in an unlicensed house in such county or borough.

(3) Upon every visit under this section the medical journal shall be produced to the person making the visit, and he shall sign the same.

(4) Every report under this section shall be kept by the secretary of the Commissioners, and a copy thereof shall, if the Commissioners think it expedient, be laid before the Lord Chancellor.

Power to inspect.

200.—(1) Any Commissioner visiting an unlicensed house may inspect any part of the house and the grounds belonging thereto.

(2) If the person having charge of a single patient refuses to show to any Commissioner, at his request, any part of the house wherein the single patient resides, or any part of the grounds belonging thereto, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Visits to Paupers in certain Cases.

Visits to paupers in institutions for lunatics.

201.—(1) A medical practitioner appointed by the guardians of a union, and also the guardians of any union shall be permitted whenever they see fit, between eight in the morning and six in the evening, to visit and examine any pauper lunatic chargeable to the union confined in any institution for lunatics, unless the medical officer of the institution delivers to the person or persons intending to make the visit a statement signed by him certifying that for the reasons set forth in the statement the visit would be injurious to the lunatic.

(2) The medical officer shall forthwith enter in the medical journal the reasons set forth in the statement, and shall sign the entry.

Visits to pauper lunatics not in institution for lunatics.

202.—(1) Every pauper lunatic not in an institution for lunatics shall once in every quarter of a year (reckoning the several quarters as ending on the thirty-first of March, the thirtieth of June, the thirtieth of September, and the thirty-first of December) be visited, if not resident in a workhouse, by the medical officer of the union, or district in which the lunatic is resident, and, if resident in a workhouse, by the medical officer of the workhouse.

(2) The guardians of every union shall from time to time furnish to every medical officer of the union forms for the prescribed returns relating to pauper lunatics not in an institution for lunatics.

(3) Where a pauper lunatic has, by order of the visiting committee, been delivered over to the custody of a relative or friend to whom an allowance is made for the maintenance of the lunatic, the medical officer of the union or district in which the lunatic resides shall, within three days after each quarterly visit, send to the visiting committee a report stating whether in his opinion the lunatic is properly taken care of, and may properly remain out of an asylum.

(4) Each medical officer shall be paid two shillings and sixpence for each quarterly visit to a pauper not in a workhouse, and, in addition, two shillings and sixpence for every report sent to a visiting committee under this section, and those sums shall be paid by the same persons and be charged to the same account as the relief of the pauper.

(5) Nothing in this section shall relieve any medical officer from any obligation under this Act to give notice to a relieving officer or overseer when it appears to such medical officer that a pauper lunatic ought to be sent to an asylum.

Visitation of Workhouses.

203. Any one or more of the Commissioners shall, on such day or days, and at such hours in the day, and for such length of time as he or they may think fit, visit all such workhouses in which there is or is alleged to be any lunatic, as the Commissioners by any resolution direct, and shall inquire whether the provisions of the law have been carried out, and also as to the dietary, accommodation, and treatment of the lunatics, and shall report in writing thereon to the Commissioners, and the Commissioners shall forward a copy of every such report to the Local Government Board.

Special Visits.

Power to appoint a person to inquire into cases requiring immediate investigation.

204.—(1) If, for reasons to be entered on the minutes of the board, any case appears to the Commissioners to call for immediate investigation, they may by order direct any competent person or persons to visit and report upon the mental and bodily condition of any lunatic or alleged lunatic in any institution for lunatics or workhouse, or under the charge of any person as a single patient, and to inquire into and report upon any matters into which the Commissioners are authorised to inquire.

(2) Every such person shall, for the special purposes mentioned in the order, have all the powers of a Commissioner.

(3) The Commissioners may allow to any such person a reasonable sum for his services and expenses.

Visits to lunatics so found and other lunatics.

205.—(1) The Lord Chancellor in the case of a lunatic so found by inquisition, and the Lord Chancellor or a Secretary of State in any other case, may at any time, by an order in writing under the hand of the Lord Chancellor or the Secretary of State, as the case may be, directed to the Commissioners or any of them, or to any other person, require the persons or person to whom the order is directed to visit and examine a lunatic or alleged lunatic and to inspect any place in which a lunatic or alleged lunatic is detained, and to report to the Lord Chancellor or to a Secretary of State upon such matters as in the order are directed to be inquired into.

(2) Every person (not being a Commissioner) employed under this section may be paid such sum of money for his services as the Lord Chancellor or a Secretary of State thinks reasonable.

(3) Every person so employed, whether a Commissioner or not, shall be allowed his reasonable travelling or other expenses while so employed.

(4) Sums payable under this section shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament.

Lunatics in Private Families and Charitable Establishments.

Lunatics in private families and charitable establishments.

206.—(1) If it comes to the knowledge of the Commissioners that any person appears to be without an order and certificates detained or treated as a lunatic or alleged lunatic by any person receiving no payment for the charge, or in any charitable, religious, or other establishment (not being an institution for lunatics), they may require the person by whom the patient is detained, or the superintendent or principal officer of the establishment, to send to them, within or at such time or times as the Commissioners may appoint, a report or periodical reports by a medical practitioner of the mental and bodily condition of the patient, with all such other particulars as to him and his property as they think fit.

(2) Any one or more of the Commissioners may at any time visit any such patient and report the result of the visit to the Commissioners, and may exercise, with respect to such patient, all the powers (except that of discharge) given to them as to persons confined in any institution for lunatics, or as single patients.

(3) The Commissioners may, if they think fit, transmit any reports received by them, or may report the results of any inquiries made by them under this section, to the Lord Chancellor, who may thereupon make an order for the discharge of the patient from the custody in which he is detained or for his removal to an institution for lunatics, or to such other custody as he may think fit, and the expenses properly incurred of carrying any such order into effect and of maintaining the patient if so removed shall, if the order so directs, be paid by the guardians of the union in which the patient was found, until the authority legally liable for his maintenance has been ascertained; and such guardians shall have the same right to recover any such expenses paid by them against the lunatic and his estate, and the person or authority legally liable for his maintenance as in the case of orders for maintenance under this Act.

(4) Where an order is made by the Lord Chancellor under this section for removal of a lunatic to an asylum, any justice of the county or borough in which the asylum is may exercise all the authorities conferred upon a justice by this Act, for the purpose of making the lunatic’s property applicable to his maintenance and for maintaining him as a pauper.

(5) All reports and particulars sent to the Commissioners under this section shall be kept by them, and shall be open to inspection only by the Commissioners and the Lord Chancellor, and by such persons as the Lord Chancellor directs.

Part VIII.

Licensed Houses and Hospitals.

Restrictions on New Licences.

Restrictions on new licences.

207.—(1) If the Commissioners in the case of a house within their immediate jurisdiction, or in the case of a house licensed by justices, the justices are of opinion that a house licensed for the reception of lunatics has been in all respects well conducted by the licensees, the Commissioners or justices may upon the expiration of the licence renew the licence for that house to the former licensees, or any one or more of them, or to their successors in business.

[Sub-s. (2) rep. 8 Edw. 7. c. 49. (S.L.R.).]

(3) If at any time it is shown to the satisfaction of the Commissioners or the justices, as the case may be, that it would be for the comfort and advantage of the patients in any licensed house that another house should be substituted in place thereof, the Commissioners or justices may grant to the licensees of such first-mentioned house a licence in respect of such other house upon and subject to the same conditions and restrictions as may have existed in respect of the first-mentioned house.

(4) In the case of joint licensees or proprietors who desire to carry on business apart from one another, if, in the opinion of the Commissioners or of the justices, as the case may be, the establishment conducted by them jointly, and also any new house which any of them desires to conduct, answers the conditions herein-before required for granting renewed licences, the Commissioners or justices, as the case may be, may grant to each of such licensees or proprietors renewed licences for such number of patients (not exceeding in the aggregate the number allowed by the joint licence) as such joint licensees or proprietors agree upon, or, failing their agreement, as the Commissioners or justices determine.

(5) Where the licensee of a house is a medical man in the employment of the proprietor of such house as his manager, the licence shall be transferable or renewable to such licensee so long as he continues manager of the house, or to the proprietor, or to any other medical manager while employed by the proprietor in the place of the former manager

(6) Save as in this section provided, no new licence shall be granted to any person for a house for the reception of lunatics, and no house in respect of which there is at the passing of this Act an existing licence shall be licensed for a greater number of lunatics than the number authorised by the existing licence.

Jurisdiction of Commissioners and Justices.

Places within immediate jurisdiction of Commissioners.

208. (1) The Commissioners shall exercise the licensing jurisdiction under this Act as regards the places mentioned in the Third Schedule which are to be deemed within their immediate jurisdiction.

(2) In all places not within the immediate jurisdiction of the Commissioners the justices for every county and quarter sessions borough shall be the licensing justices, and shall at quarter or special sessions respectively have the same authority within their counties and boroughs to license houses for the reception of lunatics as the Commissioners within their immediate jurisdiction.

(3) A person shall not act in granting any licence if he is, or within one year next preceding has been, interested in a licensed house.

Borough justice to hold special sessions.

209. For the purposes of this Part of this Act the justices of every borough shall assemble in special sessions at such times as the quarter sessions for the borough are held.

Conditions on which Licences granted.

Before grant of a new licence by justices Commissioners to inspect and report.

210. Before a licence is in any case provided for by this Act granted for a house not within the immediate jurisdiction of the Commissioners and not previously licensed, one or more of the Commissioners shall by inspection ascertain whether the house and its appurtenances are suitable for the reception of lunatics, and the Commissioners shall report thereon to the clerk of the peace of the county or borough, and the report shall be received and considered by the justices.

Licensee to reside.

211. A licence shall not be granted unless the licensee or one of the licensees undertakes to reside in the house.

Licence to joint licensees.

212. In the case of a licence granted to two or more persons, if before the expiration of the licence any of such persons dies leaving the others surviving, and one of the survivors has undertaken or within ten days after the death gives to the Commissioners or the justices who granted the licence a written undertaking to reside on the licensed premises, the licence shall remain in force and have the same effect as if granted to the survivors.

Notice of additions and alterations.

213. No addition or alteration shall be made to any licensed house or the appurtenances without the previous consent in writing of the Commissioners, and also of two of the visitors in the case of a house within the jurisdiction of visitors.

Untrue statement a misdemeanor.

214. If any person, for the purpose of obtaining a licence or the renewal of a licence for a house for the reception of lunatics, wilfully supplies to the Commissioners or justices any untrue or incorrect information, plan, description, statement, or notice, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

A copy of licence granted by justices to be sent to the Commissioners.

215.—(1) Within seven days after the grant of a licence by the justices of a county or borough the clerk of the peace of the county or borough shall send a copy thereof to the Commissioners.

(2) Any clerk of the peace omitting to send such copy within such time shall for every such omission be liable to a penalty not exceeding forty shillings.

Stamps on licences.

216. Licences and renewed licences shall be stamped with a ten shilling stamp, and shall be under the seal of the Commissioners, if granted by them, and if by any justices under the hands of three or more of them in quarter or special sessions assembled, and shall be granted for such period, not exceeding thirteen months, as the Commissioners or justices, as the case may be, think fit.

Charge for licences.

217.—(1) For every licence there shall be paid to the secretary of the Commissioners, or to the clerk of the peace, according as the licence is granted by the Commissioners or justices, (exclusive of the stamp,) the sum of ten shillings for every patient not being a pauper, and the sum of two shillings and sixpence for every patient being a pauper.

(2) If the total amount of such sums of ten shillings and two shillings and sixpence does not amount to fifteen pounds, then so much more shall be paid as makes up fifteen pounds.

(3) If the period for which a licence is granted is less than thirteen months, the Commissioners or the justices may reduce the payment to any sum not less than five pounds.

(4) The payment for a licence for a new house granted upon the transfer of patients from a licensed house shall be not less than one pound (exclusive of the stamp).

(5) No licence shall be delivered until the sum payable for the same has been paid.

Incapacity or death of the person licensed.

218.—(1) If a person to whom a licence has been granted becomes by sickness or other sufficient reason incapable of keeping the licensed house, or dies before the expiration of the licence, the Commissioners or any three justices for the county or borough, as the case may be, may, if they think fit, by writing endorsed on the licence under the seal of the Commissioners or under the hands of such three justices, transfer the licence, with all the privileges and obligations annexed thereto, for the term then unexpired, to such person as the Commissioners or justices approve.

(2) Where a licence is transferred by justices of a county or borough under this section, the clerk of the peace of the county or borough shall within three days after the date of the instrument of transfer send a copy thereof to the Commissioners.

(3) A clerk of the peace who makes default in performing the duty imposed upon him by this section, shall, for each day during which the default continues, be liable to a penalty not exceeding forty shillings.

Notice on change of house.

219. In cases in which under this Act a house not previously licensed is to be substituted for a licensed house, unless the substitution is occasioned by fire or tempest, seven clear days’ notice of the intended substitution shall be sent to the person on whose petition the reception order of each private patient was made, or to the person by whom the last payment on account of the patient was made, and to the authority liable for the maintenance of each pauper patient.

Penalty for infringing licence.

220. If a licensee receives into his licensed house any patients beyond the number specified in the licence or fails to comply with the regulations of the licence as to the sex of the patients or the class of patients, he shall for each patient received contrary to his licence forfeit fifty pounds.

Power of revocation and prohibition of renewal of licences.

221.—(1) If a majority of the justices of a county or quarter sessions borough in quarter or special sessions assembled recommend to the Lord Chancellor that any licence granted by the justices for such county or borough be revoked, or if the Commissioners recommend to the Lord Chancellor that any licence granted either by them or by any justices be revoked or if granted by any justices be not renewed, the Lord Chancellor may, by an instrument under his hand and seal, revoke or prohibit the renewal of the licence.

(2) A revocation of a licence shall take effect at a date to be named in the instrument of revocation, not more than two months from the time when a copy or notice thereof has been published in the London Gazette.

(3) A copy or notice of the instrument of revocation shall be published in the London Gazette, and shall, before publication, be transmitted to the manager of the licensed house, or shall be left at the licensed house.

(4) In case of any such revocation or prohibition to renew being recommended to the Lord Chancellor, notice thereof in writing shall, seven clear days previously to the transmission of such recommendation to the Lord Chancellor, be given to the manager, or left at the licensed house.

Detention of lunatics after expiration or revocation of a licence a misdemeanor.

222. If after the lapse of two months from the expiration or revocation of the licence of any house, there are in the house two or more lunatics, every person keeping the house or having the care or charge of the lunatics therein, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Powers to continue so long as any lunatics detained.

223. The powers of the Commissioners and visitors with reference to any licensed house and the patients therein, and all powers and provisions of this Act having reference to the discharge, removal, and transfer of the patients, shall, after the expiration or revocation of the licence, continue in force so long as any patients are detained therein as lunatics.

Application of Fees for Licences.

Application of moneys received for licences by clerks of the peace.

224.—(1) All moneys received for licences granted by any justices shall be paid by the clerk of the peace for the county or borough into the county or borough fund.

(2) The clerk of the peace for every county or borough shall keep an account of all moneys received and paid by him as aforesaid, and of all moneys otherwise received or paid by him in the execution of this Act.

51 & 52 Vict. c. 41.

(3) Such account shall be made up to the thirty-first day of March in each year, or to such other date as the Local Government Board appoint, and shall be signed by two at least of the visitors for the county or borough; and in the case of the clerk of the peace of a county, shall be audited by the same person, in the same manner, and with the same incidents and consequences as the accounts of officers of the county council under the Local Government Act, 1888.

Balance of payments over receipts may be paid out of the funds of the county or borough.

225.—(1) The justices of every county or borough in quarter or special sessions may order such sums as may be reasonable for payment of the remuneration or salary of the visitors and their clerk, and of all other expenses incurred by or under the authority of the justices or visitors in the execution of this Act, to be paid to the clerk of the peace of the county or borough out of the county or borough fund.

(2) Every such sum shall be paid out of the county or borough fund by the treasurer thereof, and shall be allowed in his accounts, on the authority of the order by the justices for the payment thereof.

(3) Every sum ordered to be paid by justices of a county under this section shall be subject to the sanction of the standing joint committee of the county council and quarter sessions as provided by section sixty-six of the Local Government Act, 1888.

Management of Licensed Houses.

Commissioners may make regulations for the government of licensed houses.

226. The Commissioners, with the sanction of a Secretary of State, may make regulations for the government of any licensed house; and such regulations of the Commissioners, or a copy thereof, shall be transmitted by their secretary to the manager of every licensed house to which the same relate, and shall be observed therein.

Plans to be hung up.

227. There shall be hung up in some conspicuous part of every licensed house a copy of the plan given to the Commissioners or justices on applying for the licence.

Provision for residence and visits of medical attendants.

228.—(1) In every house licensed for one hundred patients or more, there shall be resident as the manager and medical officer thereof a medical practitioner.

(2) Every house licensed for less than one hundred and more than fifty patients (in case the house is not kept by or has not a resident medical practitioner) shall be visited daily by a medical practitioner.

(3) Every house licensed for less than fifty patients (in case the house is not kept by or has not a resident medical practitioner) shall be visited twice a week by a medical practitioner.

(4) The visitors of any licensed house may direct that such house, and the Commissioners may direct that any licensed house shall be visited by a medical practitioner at any other time or times, not being oftener than once a day.

(5) When a house is licensed to receive less than eleven lunatics, any two of the Commissioners or any two of the visitors of such house may, if they think fit, by any writing under their hands, permit the house to be visited by a medical practitioner at such intervals more distant than twice a week as the Commissioners or visitors appoint, but not at a greater interval than once in every two weeks.

Boarders in licensed houses.

229.—(1) The manager of a licensed house may, with the previous consent in writing of two of the Commissioners, or, where the house is licensed by justices, of two of the justices, receive and lodge as a boarder for the time specified in the consent any person who is desirous of voluntarily submitting to treatment; after the expiration of which time (unless any further consent is in like manner given for the extension thereof) he shall be discharged. The manager of a licensed house may also, with such previous consent as aforesaid, receive and lodge as a boarder, for the time specified in the consent, any relative or friend of a patient.

(2) The consent of the Commissioners or justices, as the case may be, shall be given only upon application to them by the intending boarder.

(3) The total number of patients and boarders in a licensed house shall at no one time exceed the number of patients for which the house is licensed.

(4) Every boarder shall, if required, be produced to the Commissioners and visitors respectively on their respective visits.

(5) A boarder may leave the licensed house in which he is a boarder upon giving to the manager thereof twenty-four hours notice in writing of his intention so to do.

(6) If any person is not allowed to leave the licensed house in which he is a boarder after the expiration of twenty-four hours notice to the manager thereof of his intention so to do, he shall be entitled to recover from the manager ten pounds as liquidated damages for each day or part of a day during which he is detained.

Hospitals.

Hospitals to have a resident medical attendant.

230. Every hospital for the reception of lunatics shall have a medical practitioner resident therein as the superintendent and medical officer thereof.

Provisions for registration of hospitals in which lunatics are received.

231.—(1) When application is made for the registration of a hospital for the reception of lunatics, the Commissioners may depute any one or more members of their body, or may employ such person or persons as they think fit, to inspect the hospital and report to them thereon.

(2) If the Commissioners are of opinion that the hospital ought not to be registered for the reception of lunatics, they shall make a written report to a Secretary of State, stating the reasons for such opinion, and the Secretary of State shall thereupon finally determine whether the hospital ought to be registered or not.

(3) If the Commissioners are of opinion or a Secretary of State determines that the hospital ought to be registered, the Commissioners shall issue a provisional certificate of registration.

(4) A provisional certificate shall be valid for six months from the date of its issue, and for such extended time as the Commissioners allow, unless before its expiration it is superseded by a complete certificate of registration.

(5) Within three months from the date of the provisional certificate, the managing committee of the hospital shall frame regulations[¹] for the hospital, and shall submit the same to a Secretary of State for approval.

(6) Upon approval of the regulations by a Secretary of State, the Commissioners shall issue a complete certificate of registration, and shall specify therein the total number of patients of each sex who may be received in the hospital.

(7) As from the date of a provisional certificate lunatics may be received in the hospital, but if no complete certificate of registration is granted, then no lunatic shall be received or detained in the hospital after the expiration of the provisional certificate.

(8) The total number of patients and boarders, if any, in a hospital shall at no one time exceed the number of patients for which the hospital is certified.

(9) No lunatic shall be received in any hospital unless the same has been registered before the passing of this Act, or is registered under a provisional or complete certificate by virtue of this Act.

(10) The superintendent of any hospital who receives or detains any lunatic in the hospital contrary to the provisions of this Act, or to the terms of the complete certificate of registration, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Regulations.

232. [¹] —(1) The regulations for the time being in force in a hospital shall be observed.

(2) Such regulations shall be printed, and a copy thereof shall be sent to the Commissioners, and another copy hung up in the visitors room in the hospital.

(3) If the regulations are not so sent and hung up, the superintendent shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds.

Buildings not shown on plans not to be used for accommodation of lunatics.

233.—(1) No building in the occupation of the managing committee of a registered hospital not shown on the plans sent to the Commissioners pursuant to any rules made by them shall be deemed part of the hospital for any purpose connected with the reception or the care and treatment of lunatics.

(2) If the superintendent of a registered hospital knowingly permits any lunatic to be detained or lodged in any building not shown on the plans of the hospital sent to the Commissioners, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.

Accounts to be audited and printed.

234.—(1) The accounts of every registered hospital which does not submit its accounts to the Charity Commissioners shall be audited once a year by an accountant or other auditor to be approved by the Lunacy Commissioners, and shall be printed.

(2) The Lunacy Commissioners may, if they think fit, prescribe the form in which the accounts of any registered hospital are to be kept, and the day of the year to which they are to be made up.

Superannuation allowance of officer of hospital.

235. The managing committee of any hospital may grant to any officer or servant who is incapacitated by confirmed illness, age, or infirmity, or who has been an officer or servant in the hospital for not less than fifteen years and is not less than fifty years old, such superannuation allowance, not exceeding two-thirds of the salary of the superannuated person, with the value of the lodgings, rations, or other allowances enjoyed by him, as the committee think fit.

Persons disqualified to be members of managing committee of hospital.

236. The following persons shall be disqualified from being members of the managing committee of a registered hospital:

(a) Any medical or other officer of the hospital:

(b) Any person who is interested in or participates in the profits of any contract with or work done for the managing committee of the hospital, but so that this disqualification shall not extend to a person who is a member of an incorporated company which has entered into a contract with or done any work for the managing committee.

Powers for enforcing regulations of hospitals.

237.—(1) The Commissioners may require the superintendent or any other officer of a registered hospital to give them such information as the Commissioners think fit as to the mode in which the regulations of the hospital are carried out.

(2) If the Commissioners are of opinion that the regulations are not properly carried out, they may give to the superintendent and any two members of the managing committee of the hospital notice stating the particulars in which the regulations are not properly carried out, and requiring such things to be done as the Commissioners think proper for carrying out the same.

(3) If at the expiration of six months from the date of the notice the requirements of the notice have not, in the opinion of the Commissioners, been complied with, the Commissioners, with the consent in writing of a Secretary of State, may make an order directing the hospital to be closed as from the date named in the order, so far as the reception and detention of lunatics is concerned.

(4) If any lunatics are detained or kept in the hospital after the date appointed by the order for closing the hospital, the superintendent of the hospital shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

(5) Before an order is made under this section, the Commissioners shall send to the superintendent and any two members of the managing committee of the hospital notice in writing requiring them to state in writing within fourteen days the reasons why the requirements of the first notice have not been complied with; and such statement, if any, shall be laid before the Secretary of State.

Part IX.

County and Borough Asylums.

Obligation to provide Asylums.

Local authorities to provide asylums.

238.—(1) Every local authority, as defined by this Act, shall provide and maintain an asylum or asylums for the accommodation of pauper lunatics.

(2) Where the asylum accommodation of a local authority appears to the local authority to be insufficient, the local authority may supply the deficiency by exercising the powers by this Act conferred for providing asylum accommodation, or by rebuilding or enlarging any existing asylum.

(3) For the purpose of providing asylum accommodation, a local authority may purchase any licensed or other houses and land.

51 & 52 Vict. c. 41.

(4) For the purpose of providing asylum accommodation a local authority not being a county council shall have the same powers as are by section sixty-five of the Local Government Act, 1888, conferred upon a county council.

Powers to be exercised by a visiting committee.

239. A local authority shall exercise the powers conferred by this Act for providing asylum accommodation by a visiting committee, subject, if the local authority thinks fit, to their directions as to which of the methods of providing asylum accommodation authorised by this Act shall be adopted.

Local Authority defined.

Local authority defined.

240. The council of every administrative county and county borough respectively constituted under the Local Government Act, 1888, and the council of each of the boroughs specified in the Fourth Schedule, or in the case of the City of London the common council, shall be a local authority for the purposes of this Act.

Powers for providing Asylums.

Power to provide asylums for pauper and private patients.

241. A local authority may provide asylum accommodation for pauper and private patients, together or in separate asylums, and may provide separate asylums for idiots or patients suffering from any particular class of mental disorder.

Modes in which asylum may be provided.

242.—(1) For the purpose of providing asylum accommodation, a local authority may do all or any of the following things:—

(a) Provide and maintain an asylum alone;

(b) Agree to unite in providing and maintaining a district asylum with any other local authority or local authorities;

(c) Agree to unite with any other local authority or local authorities upon such terms as to payment and otherwise as may be thought proper for the joint use as a district asylum of any existing asylum, and, if they think fit, for the enlargement of the same.

(2) Where an agreement to unite has been entered into, an agreement for further union may be entered into between all or any of the local authorities concerned, and for all the purposes of this Act an agreement for further union shall be deemed to be an agreement to unite.

(3) An agreement to unite shall not be carried into effect without the approval of a Secretary of State.

Contract between council of county borough and visiting committee.

243.—(1) The council of a county borough may contract with the visiting committee of an asylum for the reception of the pauper lunatics of the borough into the asylum.

(2) Any such contract may be made for such consideration and upon such terms as to duration, determination, and otherwise as may be agreed between the council of the borough and the visiting committee of the asylum.

(3) While a contract under this section is in force, making adequate provision for the pauper lunatics of the borough, the council of the borough shall not be required to provide an asylum alone or in union.

(4) A contract under this section shall not be carried into effect until approved by a Secretary of State.

Provision for case where a county borough has contributed to the cost of a county asylum.

244.—(1) Where a county borough has contributed to the cost of building and furnishing a county asylum, the existing liability of the borough council shall continue until a new arrangement is made under this section, and the county council shall provide accommodation for and maintain pauper lunatics sent from the borough on the same terms as hitherto.

51 & 52 Vict. c. 41.

(2) Any new arrangement may be made between the county council and all the borough councils concerned, with respect to any such asylum; and if any such new arrangement is made, the borough and county councils may carry into effect any adjustment of property, debts, and liabilities which is the subject of such arrangement. If any council desires to make a new arrangement, and any or all of the other councils refuse to agree to the same, the matter shall be referred to the Commissioners under the Local Government Act, 1888, or, after they have ceased to hold office, to arbitration under that Act.

Borough contributing to county asylum exempt.

245.—(1) Where any borough specified in the Fourth Schedule contributes to a county asylum, such borough shall, so long as it continues to contribute, be deemed to satisfy the requirements of this Act with respect to asylum accommodation.

(2) The council of the borough may resolve for the purpose of providing asylum accommodation to separate from the county to which it contributes.

(3) Notice of the resolution to separate shall be given to the clerk of the county council, and upon the expiration of six months from the date of the notice, the council of the borough shall be subject to the obligations imposed by this Act of providing asylum accommodation.

(4) Notwithstanding a notice to separate, the council of the borough shall continue liable to contribute to the county asylum, until all the pauper lunatics therein belonging to the borough have been removed.

Where borough contracts with county powers of borough to provide an asylum to cease on determination of contract.

246. [¹] Where any borough specified in the Fourth Schedule has contracted for the reception of the lunatics of the borough in the asylum of the county in which the borough is situate, the borough shall, on the determination of the contract, cease to be a local authority under this Act, and . shall be liable to contribute to the county rate of the county in respect of such lunatic asylum in like manner as the rest of the county.

Power of Secretary of State to enforce Act.

Default by county or borough in providing asylum.

247. If the Commissioners report to a Secretary of State that any local authority has failed to satisfy the requirements of this Act as regards asylum accommodation, the Secretary of State may require the local authority to provide such accommodation in such manner as he may direct, and the local authority shall forthwith carry the requisition into effect.

Agreements to unite.

Provisions to be contained in agreements to unite.

248.—(1) Agreements to unite shall state—

(a) The number of visitors to be chosen by each contracting party;

(b) The proportion in which the expenses of providing the asylum are to be borne by each contracting party, and the basis upon which such proportion is fixed:

Form 21.

(c) Where the agreement provides for the joint user of an existing asylum, the sum to be paid by each contracting party towards expenses already incurred.

(2) Provisions in any agreement to unite, subjecting the visiting committee to any control not provided for by this Act, except the control of the Secretary of State, shall be of no effect.

Apportionment of expenses.

249. The proportion in which the expenses of providing a district asylum are to be borne, as between the uniting counties and boroughs, may be fixed either according to the extent of the accommodation required for each county and borough, or in proportion to the respective population of each county or borough according to the last census for the time being.

Power to vary agreement to unite.

250. An agreement to unite may with the consent in writing of a majority of the visitors of each contracting local authority and with the sanction of the Secretary of State be altered or varied, but not so as to contain any provision which might not have been contained in an agreement to unite in the first instance.

Agreement to unite to be reported and delivered to clerk of local authority.

251.—(1) Every agreement to unite shall as soon as possible be reported to the local authorities interested.

(2) The original of every agreement to unite, and of every agreement varying an agreement to unite, shall be delivered to the clerk of the local authority within whose administrative area the asylum to which the same relates is situate or is intended to be situate, and shall be kept by him among the records of the local authority.

(3) The original agreement so delivered may be inspected without payment by any Commissioner and by any member of the council of any of the contracting local authorities.

(4) The clerk of a local authority to whom any such agreement is delivered shall cause copies to be made thereof, and shall within twenty days after the delivery to him of the original send one copy to the Commissioners and another copy to each of the contracting local authorities.

Application of money paid for expenses already incurred.

252.—(1) Where under an agreement to unite a sum is to be paid towards the expenses already incurred by a local authority in relation to an existing asylum, the sum shall be paid to the treasurer of the local authority as part of the county or borough fund and shall be applied to purposes for which capital is properly applicable.

Visitors to be chosen.

253. When an agreement to unite has been reported, each local authority shall elect out of their body the number of visitors agreed to be chosen by them, and the visitors so chosen shall carry the agreement into effect and shall be the visiting committee of the asylum until the election of a visiting committee in their place.

Purchase of Land and other incidental Powers.

Powers of committee to provide asylum.

254.—(1) A visiting committee authorised to provide asylum accommodation may agree upon plans and estimates, and contract for the purchase of lands and buildings with or without fittings and furniture, and for the erection, restoration, enlargement, and furnishing of buildings, and for the supply of clothing, and for all the matters necessary for carrying into effect the authority conferred upon them.

(2) Plans and contracts [¹ for the purchase of lands and buildings and for the erection, restoration, and enlargement of buildings] agreed upon by a visiting committee shall not be carried into effect until approved by a Secretary of State.

(3) A visiting committee shall report to the local authority or local authorities by whom they were elected, all plans, estimates, and contracts agreed upon, and also the amount to be paid by each local authority, and such plans, estimates, and contracts shall be subject to the approval of the local authority, to whom they are to be reported, except where the amount to be expended does not exceed an amount previously fixed by the local authority.

(4) In the event of a difference between any local authorities as to whether any plan, estimate, or contract ought to be approved, the local authority withholding approval shall, within four months after the plan, estimate, or contract has been reported to them, send to a Secretary of State a statement in writing of their objections, and the Secretary of State may direct the plan, estimate, or contract to be carried into execution, with or without any alterations, or he may direct such other plan, estimate, or contract, as he thinks fit, to be carried into execution, and the decision of a Secretary of State under this section shall be final.

Additions to asylums for private patients.

255. The visiting committee of an asylum, with the consent of each local authority by whom the asylum is provided, and with the approval in writing of a Secretary of State, may make such alterations in or additions to the asylum either by way of detached buildings or blocks of buildings or otherwise as they think fit for the purpose of providing accommodation for private lunatics.

Contracts.

256.—(1) Every person entering into a contract with a visiting committee shall give sufficient security for due performance of the contract.

(2) Every such contract and all orders relating thereto shall be entered in a book to be kept by the clerk of the visiting committee, and when the contract is completed the book shall be deposited and kept among the records of the local authority, or, when more than one local authority is interested, then among the records of the local authority which contributes the largest proportion of the expenses of the contract.

(3) Every such book may be inspected at all reasonable times by any person contributing to the rates of the local authority interested in the contract.

(4) A copy of every such book shall be kept at the asylum to which the contract relates.

Enlargement of district asylum.

257. A district asylum shall not be enlarged or improved without the consent of all the parties to the agreement under which the same is provided.

Burial grounds.

258.—(1) The visiting committee of an asylum, with the consent of the local authority by whom they are appointed and of a Secretary of State, may provide for the burial of lunatics dying in the asylum, and of the officers and servants belonging thereto—

(a) By appropriating any land already belonging to them or acquiring any land, not exceeding in either case two acres, for enlarging an existing burial ground, or for providing a new burial ground;

(b) By agreeing with any corporation or persons or body of persons willing to provide for the burial of such lunatics and other persons as aforesaid.

(2) The committee may procure the consecration of a new or enlarged burial ground, and in the case of a new burial ground, may provide for the appointment of a chaplain therein.

(3) The incumbent of the parish in which a new or enlarged burial ground provided by a visiting committee is situate, shall not be entitled to any fee for the interment of any person buried therein by direction of the committee.

Burial of lunatics.

259. Where a visiting committee undertake the burial of any pauper lunatic, and the public burial ground of the parish where the death took place is closed or inconveniently crowded, the burial may take place in a public burial ground of some other parish, with the consent of the minister and church-wardens of that parish; and in that case the visiting committee shall pay to the person entitled thereto the burial fees payable under any Act or according to the custom of the place of burial.

Incorporation of Lands Clauses Acts.

260. For the purpose of the purchase of lands by visiting committees the Lands Clauses Acts are hereby incorporated with this Act, except the provisions relating to the purchase of land otherwise than by agreement, the sale of superfluous lands, the recovery of forfeitures, penalties, and costs and access to the special Act, and the expression “promoters of the undertaking” wherever used in the Lands Clauses Acts shall mean a visiting committee, and the expression “special Act” shall mean this Act.

Power to take land on lease.

261.—(1) A visiting committee, instead of purchasing any land or buildings which they are authorised to purchase, may take a lease thereof for any term not less than sixty years at such rent and subject to such covenants as the committee think fit.

(2) A visiting committee, with the sanction of each local authority for whom they are authorised to act, may hire or take on lease from year to year, or for any term of years, at such rent and subject to such covenants as they think fit, any land or buildings for the employment of the patients in the asylum, or for the temporary accommodation of any pauper lunatics for whom the accommodation in the asylum is inadequate.

(3) Lands and buildings hired or taken on lease under this section shall be deemed part of the asylum, and be subject to all existing provisions as to the asylum.

Situation of asylum.

262. The asylum to be provided by any local authority either solely or jointly, may be situate without the limits of the administrative area of the local authority, and if the asylum or any part thereof is so situate, the council and justices of the county, county borough, or borough to which the asylum wholly or in part belongs shall have full power and authority to act in the county or borough in which the asylum is situate, so far as concerns the regulation of the asylum and the powers conferred by this Act, as if the asylum were situate within the proper jurisdiction of such council and justices.

Rating of asylums.

263. Lands and buildings already or to be hereafter purchased or acquired for the purposes of any asylum, and any additional building erected or to be erected thereon, shall, while used for those purposes, be assessed to county, parochial, district and other rates made after the commencement of this Act on the same basis and to the same extent as other lands and buildings in the same parish, township, or district.

How lands to be conveyed.

264. Any lands acquired for the purposes of this Act may be conveyed to the local authority being a county council, or in cases where the local authority is the council of a borough to the municipal corporation of the borough, or, where more than one local authority is interested, to the local authorities interested as joint tenants.

Power to retain land unsuitable or not required for asylum purposes.

265. Any lands or buildings which have been used for the purposes of an asylum, and have been found unsuitable, or are otherwise not required for such purposes, may, with the consent of a Secretary of State, and subject to such conditions as he thinks fit to impose, be retained by the local authority, and appropriated for any purposes for which the local authority is empowered to acquire land.

Repairs, alterations, improvements.

266.—(1) The visiting committee of an asylum may, of their own authority, order all necessary and ordinary repairs. They may also, of their own authority, order all necessary and proper additions, alterations, and improvements which the asylum may require, to an amount not exceeding four hundred pounds in any one year.

(2) An order for repairs, additions, alterations, or improvements to an amount exceeding one hundred pounds shall not be given, unless the order is approved and signed by at least three visitors at a meeting of the visiting committee duly summoned upon notice that the proposed expenditure is to be considered thereat.

(3) Any expenditure incurred, except for repairs, shall be reported by the visiting committee to the local authority on whose behalf the expenditure was incurred.

(4) In the case of a district asylum, the visiting committee shall apportion expenses incurred under this section in the proportion in which each local authority has contributed to the erection of the asylum, or where any other proportion is fixed by an agreement to unite then in the proportion so fixed; and where any such agreement only provides in what proportion the expense of repairs shall be borne, the expense of additions, alterations, and improvements shall be borne in the same proportion.

(5) The visiting committee shall make an order for payment of the expenses incurred under this section upon the treasurer of the local authority, or, in the case of a district asylum, shall make an order upon the treasurer of each local authority concerned for payment of the expenses apportioned to that local authority, and the treasurer upon whom the order is made shall pay the amount mentioned in the order out of the county or borough fund.

Dissolution of Agreement to unite.

Power to dissolve a union.

267.—(1) A visiting committee, with the consent of a Secretary of State, may by a resolution passed by a majority of the whole number of the members of the committee at a meeting summoned upon notice that the resolution is to be proposed thereat dissolve an agreement to unite.

(2) Every local authority interested under an agreement to unite shall, before a dissolution of the agreement takes effect, elect a committee to provide asylum accommodation in accordance with the provisions of this Act.

(3) In case an agreement to unite is dissolved between any local authority not having an asylum and a local authority which has an asylum and is in receipt of an annual fixed payment as remuneration for any expenses incurred for the benefit of the local authority making the payment, such last-mentioned local authority may raise such a sum of money for compensation to the local authority receiving the payment as may be agreed upon and approved by the visiting committee by whom the union is dissolved.

(4) Upon the dissolution of an agreement to unite the visiting committee may divide the real and personal property held for the purposes of the agreement among the several local authorities, between whom the agreement existed, in the proportion in which they contributed thereto or are interested therein, or in such proportions as the visiting committee, with the consent of a Secretary of State, think fit. And a sum of money of such amount, and to be raised by any of the local authorities parties to the agreement in such proportions as the committee, with the consent of a Secretary of State, approve, may be awarded to any local authority instead of a share or part of a share in such property.

(5) Any money to be raised under this section may be raised in the same manner and by the same means as other moneys appointed to be raised for the purposes of this Part of this Act.

Cancellation of Contracts.

Power to cancel contract.

268.—(1) Where any lands contracted to be purchased or taken in exchange by a visiting committee are found unsuitable, or are not required, the committee, or any committee appointed in their place, may, with the consent of a Secretary of State, and upon payment of such sum, if any, as a Secretary of State approves, procure a release from the contract and execute a release to the other contracting party.

(2) The consideration, if any, for such release, and all expenses in relation to the contract and release, shall be raised in the same manner as if the same were payable in respect of the purchase money of lands for the purposes aforesaid.

Admission of Pauper Lunatics from other Counties or Boroughs.

Power to contract for reception of lunatics.

269.—(1) A visiting committee (in this section called the contracting committee) may contract with the manager of a licensed house, or subject as in this section provided with any other visiting committee (in this section called the receiving committee), for the reception into that house, or into the asylum of the receiving committee, of all or any of the pauper lunatics of the local authority for which the contracting committee is acting, or for the use and occupation of the whole or any part of the house, upon such terms as may be agreed.

(2) Where a contract between a visiting committee and the subscribers to a hospital for the reception of pauper patients into the hospital was subsisting on the twenty-sixth of August one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine, such contract shall continue in force, and on its expiration a new contract may be entered into with such subscribers subject to the provisions of this section.

(3) A contract between a visiting committee and any other visiting committee or the manager of a licensed house or the subscribers to a hospital for the reception of the lunatics of the local authority for which the contracting committee is acting (herein-after called a reception contract) shall not be made for more than five years, but such contract may be renewed subject to the provisions of this section.

(4) Where a reception contract has been made, whether before or after the passing of this Act, on behalf of a borough with the visiting committee of an asylum, and the contract is determinable by the parties thereto, or either of them, the contract shall not be determined without the consent of a Secretary of State.

(5) A reception contract shall not be carried into effect until approved by a Secretary of State, and any reception contract may be determined by a Secretary of State.

(6) A reception contract with the manager of a licensed house shall determine if the house ceases to be licensed.

(7) A reception contract shall not exempt the local authority for which the contracting committee is acting from the requirements of this Act as regards asylum accommodation if a Secretary of State determines the contract, although the term for which the contract was entered into has not expired.

(8) Except as in this section provided a visiting committee shall not . . . . . . enter into a reception contract with subscribers to a hospital.

(9) Where a reception contract has been made by a visiting committee, the local authority for whom the visiting committee acts shall, while the contract subsists, defray out of the county or borough fund so much of the weekly charge agreed upon for each pauper lunatic as in the opinion of the visiting committee represents the sum due for the accommodation, not exceeding one-fourth of the entire weekly charge, in exoneration to that extent of the union to which the maintenance of any such pauper lunatic is chargeable.

(10) Where a reception contract has been entered into by the visiting committee of an asylum with the subscribers to a hospital or the manager of a licensed house, the hospital or house may be visited by any members for the time being of the committee of the asylum.

Cases where asylum is more than sufficient for pauper lunatics.

270.—(1) Where it appears to the visiting committee of an asylum that the asylum is more than sufficient for the pauper lunatics who for the time being can be lawfully received, the committee may by resolution permit any other pauper lunatics to be received into the asylum.

(2) A resolution under this section may require that no pauper lunatic be admitted thereunder without an undertaking by the minute of the guardians of the union to which the lunatic is chargeable for the payment of the expenses of maintenance of the lunatic, and of his burial if he dies in the asylum, as well as for his removal within six days after notice from the manager of the asylum.

(3) A resolution under this section may be rescinded or varied.

Admission of Private Patients.

Provisions as to private patients in asylums.

271.—(1) Private patients may be received into any asylum upon such terms as to payment and accommodation as the visiting committee think fit. All enactments as to the conditions on which such lunatics may be received into hospitals or licensed houses shall be applicable to private patients received into such asylums.

(2) An account of the amount, by which the sums charged for private patients received in the asylum exceed the weekly charges for pauper lunatics sent from or settled in any place, parish, or borough which has contributed to provide the asylum, shall be made up to the last day of each year, and the surplus, if any, after carrying to the building and repair funds such sums, and providing for such outgoings and expenses as the visiting committee consider proper, shall be paid to the treasurer of the local authority to which the asylum belongs, or in the case of an asylum belonging to several local authorities, to their respective treasurers in the proportions in which such local authorities or the justices of the counties and boroughs whose powers have been transferred to them have contributed to the asylum, and shall be applied as part of the county or borough fund.

Approval of Secretary of State.

Mode of obtaining approval of Secretary of State.

272. For the purpose of procuring the approval of a Secretary of State to any agreement, contract, or plan requiring approval under this Act, the agreement, contract, or plan, with an estimate of the probable cost of carrying it into effect, shall be submitted to the Commissioners, and to the Secretary of State, and the Commissioners shall make such inquiries as they think fit, and shall report thereon to the Secretary of State, who may approve the agreement, contract, or plan, with or without modification, or may refuse his approval.

Provisions for raising Expenses.

Payment of expenses.

273. The expenses to be paid and contributed by a local authority for the purposes of this Act shall be paid by the treasurer of the local authority out of the county or borough fund as the case may be to the treasurer of the asylum to which such local authority either alone or jointly pays or contributes.

Borrowing Powers.

Power to borrow.

51 & 52 Vict. c. 41.

45 & 46 Vict. c. 50.

274.—(1) For the purpose of paying any money payable under this Act, or for repaying any moneys borrowed under this Act or any former Act, authorising borrowing for purposes of asylum accommodation, the local authority may with the consent of the Local Government Board, and subject to the provisions of the Local Government Act, 1888, and the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, according as the same respectively are applicable to the local authority, borrow on the security of the county or borough fund, and of any revenue of the local authority, or on either such fund or revenues or on any part of the revenues, such money as the local authority requires.

(2) The Public Works Loan Commissioners may, if they see fit, make any loan for the purposes of this Act to the local authority upon the security of any fund or revenues applicable to the purposes of this Act.

Rules and Regulations.

General rules and regulations to be framed.

275.—(1) The visiting committee of an asylum shall within twelve months after the completion of the asylum prepare and submit to a Secretary of State general rules for the government of the asylum, and such rules when approved by a Secretary of State shall be printed and observed.

(2) The general rules of every asylum may be altered and varied with the approval of a Secretary of State.

(3) The visiting committee shall also make regulations (not inconsistent with the general rules) setting forth the number and description of officers and servants and their respective duties and salaries.

(4) The regulations may provide that any number of beds in such part of the asylum as the committee think fit shall be reserved for the cases specified in the regulations, and in that case the asylum shall for the purposes of this Act, as respects the admission of cases not within the class for which beds are reserved, be deemed full when there are no vacant beds except those so reserved, but the committee may, if they think fit, fill any reserved beds.

(5) The regulations may also provide for the exclusion of any persons afflicted with any malady which the visiting committee deem contagious or infectious or coming from a place in which such a malady may be prevalent, and for the absence for a period not exceeding four days of a patient from the asylum by permission of the manager.

(6) The committee shall also determine the diet of the patients.

Officers of Asylums.

Officers of asylums.

276.—(1) The visiting committee of every asylum shall appoint:—

(a) A chaplain, who shall be in priest’s orders, and shall be licensed by the bishop of the diocese;

(b) A medical officer, who shall reside in the asylum and shall not be the clerk or treasurer of the asylum;

(c) A superintendent of the asylum, or, if there is more than one division, a superintendent of each division of the asylum, who shall be the resident medical officer or one of the resident medical officers of the asylum, or of the division of which he is appointed superintendent, unless a Secretary of State authorise the committee to appoint some other person than a medical officer to be superintendent;

(d) A clerk;

(e) A treasurer;

(f) Such other officers and servants as they think fit.

(2) The visiting committee may appoint a minister of any religious persuasion to attend patients of the religious persuasion to which the minister belongs.

(3) The committee may remove any person appointed under this section, and if the office of chaplain, medical officer, superintendent, clerk, or treasurer becomes vacant, the committee shall appoint a person to fill the vacancy subject to the restrictions affecting the original appointment, and they may in their discretion fill any vacancies among other officers and servants of the asylum.

(4) The committee may also appoint a visiting physician or surgeon to the asylum.

(5) The salaries, wages, and remuneration of every person appointed under this section shall be fixed by the committee.

The chaplain.

277.—(1) The licence of the chaplain of an asylum shall be revocable by the bishop.

(2) The chaplain, or his substitute approved by the committee, shall perform in the chapel of the asylum, or in some other convenient place belonging to the asylum, divine service according to the rites of the Church of England on every Sunday, Christmas-day, and Good-Friday. He shall also perform divine service, and such other services according to the rites of the Church of England as the committee direct, at such times as they appoint.

(3) If a patient is of a religious persuasion differing from that of the established Church, a minister of his persuasion, at the request of the patient or his friends, may, with the consent of the medical officer and under such regulations as he approves, visit the patient

Books and accounts.

278.—(1) The clerk of the asylum shall keep all books and documents which the visiting committee are required to keep or direct to be kept.

(2) He shall also keep an account of the receipts and expenditure on account of the asylum.

(3) Before the thirtieth day of September in each year, or such other date as the Local Government Board appoint, he shall send an abstract of the account for the previous year, ending on the thirty-first day of March, or such other date as the Local Government Board appoint, to the Local Government Board, and to the Commissioners.

(4) The abstract shall contain such particulars and be in such form as the Local Government Board direct.

(5) Within one month from the receipt of the abstract a copy thereof shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament, if Parliament is then sitting, and if not, within one month from the commencement of the next session.

(6) The treasurer and every officer of an asylum who receives or expends money or goods on account of the asylum shall keep accounts of his receipts and expenditure.

(7) This section shall not affect any order made by the Local Government Board before the commencement of this Act.

[S. 279 (as to audit of accounts) rep. 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 29. See now s. 18 of that Act.]

Pensions.

Pensions to officers.

280.—(1) The visiting committee may grant to any superintendent, chaplain, matron, or other officer or servant of the asylum, who is incapacitated by confirmed illness, age, or infirmity, or who has been an officer or servant in the asylum for not less than fifteen years and is not less than fifty years old, such superannuation allowance as the committee think fit.

(2) Where the offices of superintendent and matron are held by man and wife, and a superannuation allowance has been granted to the superintendent, the committee may, if the matron has been an officer of the asylum for not less than twenty years, grant her such superannuation allowance as they think fit, although she is not incapacitated by illness, age, or infirmity: Provided that, if any such matron is appointed to a public office or to any office under this Act in respect of which she receives a salary, her superannuation allowance shall, so long as she receives such salary, be suspended or diminished by the amount of the salary according as the salary is or is not greater than the allowance.

(3) A superannuation allowance shall not exceed two-thirds of the salary paid to the superannuated person at the date of superannuation and such further sum (if any) as the visitors think fit to grant, having regard to the value of the lodgings, rations, and other allowances enjoyed by the superannuated person.

Mode in which pension to be granted.

281.—(1) A superannuation allowance shall not be granted unless seven clear days’ notice of the meeting at which the same is to be granted, and of the intention to determine thereat the question of such grant, has been given, nor unless three visitors concur in and sign the order granting the same.

(2) A superannuation allowance granted under this Act shall be paid out of the county or borough fund as the case may be.

(3) A superannuation allowance payable out of the county fund shall not be paid until the grant thereof has been confirmed by the county council.

Service in several asylums of the same local authority.

282.—When any officer is transferred from one asylum to another, wholly or in part belonging to the same local authority, his service in all such asylums shall be counted for the purpose of computing his pension, superannuation allowance, or gratuity for length of service, as if all such asylums had constituted only one asylum.

Part X.[¹]

Expenses of Pauper Lunatics.

Weekly Expenses.

Weekly sum to be fixed.

283.—(1) Every visiting committee shall fix a weekly sum, not exceeding fourteen shillings, for the expenses of maintenance and other expenses of each pauper lunatic in the asylum, and of such amount that the total of such weekly sums shall be sufficient to defray such expenses and also the salaries of the officers and attendants of the asylum, and such weekly sum may from time to time be altered.

(2) If fourteen shillings a week is found insufficient for the purposes aforesaid, the local authority to whom the asylum belongs, may by order direct such addition to be made to the weekly sum as to the local authority seems necessary, and every such order shall be signed by the clerk of the local authority, and forthwith published in a local newspaper.

(3) A committee may fix a greater weekly sum, not exceeding fourteen shillings, to be charged in respect of pauper lunatics other than those sent from or settled in a parish or place within the county or borough to which the asylum belongs.

(4) Any excess created by the payment of such greater weekly sum may, if the visiting committee think fit, be paid over to a building and repair fund, to be applied by the committee to the altering, repairing, or improving the asylum, and the committee shall annually submit to the local authority, a detailed statement of the manner in which such fund has been expended.

Uniform charge where more than one asylum.

284. Where there is more than one asylum under the management and control of a visiting committee, the committee may, subject to any direction given by the local authority, provide that a uniform charge shall be made for the maintenance of lunatics in the several asylums, and that for that purpose any surplus arising on the accounts of one asylum shall be applied to meet the deficit arising on the accounts of another asylum.

Medical Fees and other Expenses.

Payment of medical fees and other expenses.

285.—(1) Whenever a justice directs a lunatic or alleged lunatic, whether a pauper or not, to be examined by a medical practitioner under the provisions of this Act, the justice directing the examination, or any other justice having jurisdiction in the place where the examination took place, may make an order upon the guardians of the union named in the order for payment of reasonable remuneration to the medical practitioner and of all such other reasonable expenses in and about the examination and the inquiry, whether an order for the reception of the alleged lunatic in an institution for lunatics or workhouse ought to be made, and also if an order is made for payment of such reasonable expenses of carrying the order into effect as the justice thinks proper.

(2) The guardians upon whom an order is made under this section may recover any sums paid thereunder against the lunatic or alleged lunatic and his estate, and the person or authority legally liable for his maintenance as in the case of orders for maintenance under this Act.

Liability for Expenses of Maintenance.

Chargeability of pauper lunatic.

286.—(1) Where a pauper lunatic is sent to an institution for lunatics, or where a lunatic in an institution for lunatics becomes a pauper, he shall be deemed to be chargeable to the union from which he was sent, until it has been established, as by this Act provided, that the lunatic is settled in some other union, or that it cannot be ascertained in what union the lunatic was settled, and the manager of the institution shall forthwith give to the authority liable for his maintenance notice that the lunatic has become destitute.

(2) Every pauper lunatic who is chargeable to a union shall, while he resides in an institution for lunatics, be deemed for the purposes of his settlement to be resident in the union to which he is chargeable.

Orders for maintenance of lunatics.

287.—(1) The justice by whom any pauper lunatic is sent to any institution for lunatics under this Act, or any two justices of the county or borough in which the institution for lunatics where any pauper lunatic is confined is situate, or from any part of which any pauper lunatic has been sent, or any two justices, being visitors of such institution, may make an order upon the guardians of the union to which the lunatic is chargeable, for payment to the treasurer, or manager of the institution, of the reasonable charges of the lodging, maintenance, medicine, clothing, and care (in this Act referred to as the expenses of maintenance) of such lunatic.

(2) Any such order may be retrospective or prospective, or partly retrospective and partly prospective.

(3) An order under this section shall not be subject to appeal.

Inquiry into settlement.

288. Any two justices for the county or borough in which an institution for lunatics where a pauper lunatic is or has been confined is situate, or to which such institution being an asylum wholly or in part belongs, or from any part of which any pauper lunatic is or has been sent for confinement, may, at any time, inquire into the settlement of the pauper lunatic.

Adjudication as to settlement.

289. If satisfactory evidence can be obtained as to such settlement in any union, such justices shall, by order, adjudge the settlement, and order the guardians of the union to pay to the guardians of any other union the expenses incurred in or about the examination of the lunatic and the bringing him before a justice or justices, and his removal and conveyance to or from any institution for lunatics (in this Act referred to as the incidental expenses), and all moneys paid by such last-mentioned guardians to the treasurer or manager of the institution for the expenses of maintenance of the lunatic, and incurred within twelve months previous to the date of such order, and, if the lunatic is still in confinement, also to pay to the treasurer or manager of the institution the reasonable expenses of the future maintenance of such lunatic.

If settlement cannot be ascertained, a pauper lunatic may be made chargeable to a borough or county.

290.—(1) If a pauper lunatic is not settled in the union from which he was sent to an institution for lunatics, and his settlement cannot be ascertained, and the lunatic was sent from a quarter sessions borough which is free from contributing to the payment of the expenses of pauper lunatics chargeable to the county in which the borough is situate, or from a place not in such a borough, then the relieving officer of the union shall give to the clerk of the local authority within whose area the lunatic is found, ten days’ notice to appear before two justices having jurisdiction within such area, at a time and place to be appointed in the notice.

(2) Upon the appearance of the clerk of the local authority, in person or by deputy, or in case of non-appearance upon proof of due service of the notice, any two or more such justices may inquire into the circumstances of the case, and adjudge the pauper lunatic to be chargeable to the local authority, and may order the treasurer of the local authority to pay to the guardians of any union the incidental expenses of the lunatic, and all moneys paid by such guardians to the treasurer or manager of the institution for lunatics for the expenses of maintenance of the lunatic, and incurred within twelve months previous to the date of the order, and if the lunatic is still in confinement, to pay to such treasurer or manager the expenses of the future maintenance of the lunatic.

(3) Such justices may direct such further inquiries as they think fit to ascertain the union in which any pauper lunatic is settled, and delay their adjudication until after such further inquiries.

(4) Every local authority to whom a pauper lunatic is adjudged to be chargeable may at any time thereafter inquire as to the union in which the lunatic is settled and may procure him to be adjudged to be settled in any union.

Provision for reimbursement of expenses of a lunatic afterwards adjudged to be settled in a union.

291. If after a pauper lunatic has been sent to an institution for lunatics, and has been adjudged chargeable to a local authority, the local authority procure the lunatic to be adjudged to be settled in a union, any two justices of the county or borough in which the institution where the lunatic is confined is situate, or from any part of which the lunatic was sent for confinement, or any two justices, being visitors of the institution, may make an order upon the guardians of the union for payment to the treasurer of the local authority of all expenses of maintenance of the lunatic paid by such treasurer to the treasurer or manager of the institution, and incurred within twelve months previous to the order, and, if the lunatic is still in confinement, also for payment to such treasurer or manager of the expenses of the future maintenance of the lunatic.

Orders as to lunatic paupers.

292.—(1) Justices by this Act authorised to make orders for payment of expenses upon guardians of unions may make such orders, although the union is not within the jurisdiction of the justices.

(2) Orders as to the settlement or chargeability of pauper lunatics and for payment of expenses may be obtained by the guardians of any union.

Orders for maintenance to extend to any place where the lunatic is.

293. An order for payment of the future expenses of maintenance of a lunatic shall extend to the payment of such expenses to the treasurer or manager of any institution for lunatics to which he is removed or in which he is for the time being confined.

The costs of pauper lunatics who are irremoveable.

9 & 10 Vict. c. 66.

294. All incidental expenses and expenses of maintenance of a lunatic removed to an institution for lunatics who would at the time of his removal have been exempt from removal to the parish of his settlement or the country of his birth by reason of some provision of the Poor Removal Act, 1846, as amended by subsequent Acts, shall be paid by the guardians of the union wherein the lunatic has acquired such exemption, and no order shall be made in respect of such lunatic under any provision contained in this or any other Act upon the guardians of the union in which the lunatic is settled while the above-mentioned expenses are to be paid and charged as herein provided.

Charges may be paid without orders of justices.

295. The guardians upon whom an order might be made under this Act for the payment of any money may pay the same without an order, and may charge the same to such account as they could have done if an order had been made.

The liability of relations of pauper not to be affected.

296. The liability of any relation or person to maintain any lunatic shall not be taken away or affected, where such lunatic is sent to or confined in any institution for lunatics, by any provision herein contained concerning the maintenance of such lunatic.

Expenses of removal, discharge, and burial.

297. The necessary expenses attending the removal, discharge, or burial of a pauper lunatic in any institution for lunatics, shall be borne by the union to which the lunatic is chargeable, or the local authority liable for his maintenance, and shall be paid by the guardians of the union or by the treasurer of the local authority.

Provisions of Act as to expenses to extend to pauper lunatics sent to asylums under any other Act.

298. The provisions of this Act for the payment of expenses in relation to pauper lunatics shall be applicable with respect to persons confined as pauper lunatics sent to any institution for lunatics under any other Act authorising their reception therein as pauper lunatics, and (save as herein otherwise provided concerning any lunatic who shall appear to have any real or personal property applicable to his maintenance) with respect to all other lunatics sent to any institution for lunatics under any order of a justice or justices made before the commencement of this Act, or under a summary reception order made by a justice under this Act, or under an order made by two or more commissioners before or after the commencement of this Act, as if such last-mentioned lunatics were at the time of being so sent actually chargeable to the union from which they are sent.

Application of Lunatic’s Property.

Power to recover expenses against lunatic’s estate.

299.—(1) If it appears to any justice that a lunatic, chargeable to any union, or local authority, has any real or personal property more than sufficient to maintain his family, if any, such justice may by order direct a relieving officer of the union, or the treasurer or some other officer of the local authority, to seize so much of any money, and to seize and sell so much of any other personal property of the lunatic and to receive so much of the rents of any land of the lunatic as the justice may think sufficient to pay the expenses of maintenance and incidental expenses respectively incurred or to be incurred in relation to the lunatic.

(2) If any trustee, or the Bank, or any other society or person having possession of any property of a lunatic, shall pay or deliver to a relieving officer of a union, or to the treasurer or other officer of the local authority to which respectively a lunatic is chargeable, any money or other property of the lunatic, to repay the charges in this section mentioned, whether pursuant to an order under this section or without an order, the receipt of such relieving officer, treasurer, or officer shall be a good discharge.

Order by county court judge.

300. An order may be made by a judge of county courts upon an application by the guardians of any union for payment of the expenses incurred by them under this Act in relation to a lunatic, and such order may be enforced against any property of the lunatic in the same way as a judgment of the county court.

Appeals.

Persons aggrieved by refusal of an order may appeal to the sessions.

301.—(1) Any person aggrieved by the refusal of an order by any justice or justices as to any matter within the jurisdiction of a justice or justices under this Part of this Act, may appeal to a court of quarter sessions upon giving to the justice or justices against whom the appeal is made fourteen clear days’ notice of appeal.

(2) The determination of the court upon the appeal shall be final.

Party obtaining order of adjudication to send copy thereof and statement of grounds.

302. The guardians of any union, and the clerk of a local authority, obtaining any order under this Act adjudging the settlement of any lunatic to be in any union, shall, within a reasonable time after the date of the order, send or deliver, by post or otherwise, to the guardians of the union in which the lunatic is adjudged to be settled, a copy of the order, and also a statement in writing under the hand of the clerk to the guardians, or under the hand of the clerk of the local authority, as the case may be, stating the description and address of the guardians or clerk obtaining the order, and the place of confinement of the lunatic, and setting forth the grounds of the adjudication, including the particulars of any settlement relied upon in support thereof; and on the hearing of any appeal against the order the respondents shall not give evidence of any other grounds in support of the order than those set forth in such statement.

Appeal against order of adjudication.

303. If the guardians of any union feel aggrieved by any order adjudging the settlement of a lunatic, they may appeal to the quarter sessions for the county or borough on behalf of which the order has been obtained, or in which the union obtaining the order is situate, or, in case such union extends into several counties, then to the next quarter sessions for the county or borough in which the institution for lunatics where the lunatic is or has been confined is situate, and such sessions, upon hearing the appeal, shall have full power finally to determine the matter.

Copy of depositions to be furnished on application.

304.—(1) The clerk to the justices making an order adjudging the settlement of a lunatic, or the clerk of the peace in the case herein-after provided for, shall keep the depositions upon which the order was made, and shall, within seven days after application by any party authorised to appeal against the order, furnish a copy of the depositions to the applicant.

(2) The person applying for a copy of the depositions shall pay for the same at the rate of twopence for every folio of seventy-two words.

(3) No omission or delay in furnishing a copy of the depositions shall be a ground of appeal against the order.

(4) On the trial of any appeal no such order shall be quashed or set aside either wholly or in part on the ground that the depositions do not furnish sufficient evidence to support, or that any matter therein contained or omitted raises an objection to the order or grounds on which the same was made.

(5) If the justices who make any such order have no clerk, they shall send or deliver the depositions to the clerk of the peace of the county or borough to the quarter sessions whereof the appeal lies, and the party obtaining such order shall, in the statement of the grounds of adjudication, state that the justices have no clerk.

No appeal if notice not given within a certain time.

305. No appeal shall be allowed against any such order if notice in writing of the appeal is not sent or delivered by post or otherwise to the party on whose application the order was obtained within twenty-one days after the sending or delivery, as herein-before directed, of a copy of the order, and such statement as herein-before mentioned, unless within the twenty-one days a copy of the depositions has been applied for by the party intending to appeal, in which case a further period of fourteen days after the sending of such copy shall be allowed for giving notice of appeal.

Grounds of appeal to be stated.

306. In every case where notice of appeal against such order is given the appellant shall, with the notice, or fourteen days at least before the first day of the sessions at which the appeal is to be tried, send or deliver by post or otherwise to the respondent a statement in writing under his hand, or where the appellants are the guardians of a union, under the hand of the clerk to the guardians, of the grounds of such appeal; and the appellant shall not, on the hearing of any appeal, give evidence of any other grounds of appeal than those set forth in such statement.

As to the sufficiency of statement of grounds of adjudication or appeal.

307.—(1) Upon the hearing of any appeal against any such order no objection whatever on account of any defect in the form of setting forth any ground of adjudication or appeal in any such statement shall be allowed, and no objection to the reception of legal evidence offered in support of any such ground alleged to be set forth in any such statement shall prevail, unless the court is of opinion that such alleged ground is so imperfectly or incorrectly set forth as to be insufficient to enable the party receiving the same to inquire into the subject of such statement, and to prepare for trial.

(2) In all cases where the court is of opinion that any such objection to such statement or to the reception of evidence ought to prevail, the court may, if it thinks fit, cause any such statement to be forthwith amended by some officer of the court, or otherwise, on such terms as to payment of costs to the other party, or postponing the trial to another day in the same sessions, or to the next subsequent sessions, or both payment of costs and postponement, as to the court appears just.

Power for court to amend order on account of omission or mistake.

308.—(1) If, upon the trial of any appeal against any such order, or upon the return to a writ of certiorari, any objection is made on account of any omission or mistake in drawing up the order, and it is shown to the satisfaction of the court that sufficient grounds were proved before the justices making the order to authorise the drawing up thereof free from the omission or mistake, the court may, upon such terms as to payment of costs as it thinks fit, amend the order and give judgment as if no omission or mistake had existed.

(2) No objection on account of any omission or mistake in any such order brought up upon a return to a writ of certiorari shall be allowed, unless the omission or mistake has been specified in the rule for issuing such writ of certiorari.

Power of court as to costs.

309.—(1) Upon every such appeal the court before whom the same is brought may, if it thinks fit, order the party against whom the same is decided to pay to the other such costs and charges as may to the court appear just, and shall certify the amount thereof.

(2) If either of the parties to the appeal have included in the statement of grounds of adjudication or of appeal sent to the opposite party any grounds in support of the order or of appeal which, in the opinion of the court determining the appeal, are frivolous and vexatious, such party shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to pay the whole or any part of the costs incurred by the other party in disputing any such grounds.

Decision upon appeal to be final.

310. The decision of the court upon the hearing of any appeal against any such order, as well upon the sufficiency and effect of the statement of the grounds in support of the order and appeal, and of the copy or duplicate of the order sent to the appellant, as upon the amending or refusing to amend the order as aforesaid, or the statement of grounds, shall be final, and shall not be liable to be reviewed in any court by means of a writ of certiorari or mandamus or otherwise.

Abandonment of orders.

311.—(1) In any case in which an order has been made as aforesaid, and a copy thereof sent as as herein required, the party who has obtained the order, whether any notice of appeal against the order has been given or not, and whether any appeal has been entered or not, may abandon the order, by notice in writing under the hand of such party, or, where the order has been obtained by the guardians of a union, under the hand of the clerk to the guardians, to be sent by post or delivered to the appellant or the party entitled to appeal, and thereupon the order and all proceedings consequent thereon shall be void, and shall not be given in evidence, in case any other order for the same purposes is obtained.

(2) In all cases of such abandonment the party abandoning shall pay to the appellant or the party entitled to appeal the costs which he has incurred by reason of the order and of all subsequent proceedings thereon.

(3) The proper officer of the court before whom the appeal (if it had not been abandoned) might have been brought shall, upon application, tax and ascertain the costs, at any time, whether the court is sitting or not, upon production to him of the notice of abandonment, and upon proof to him that such reasonable notice of taxation, together with a copy of the bill of costs, has been given to the guardians, or clerk abandoning the order, as the distance between the parties shall in his judgment require; and thereupon the sum allowed for costs, including the usual costs of taxation, which such officer is hereby empowered to charge and receive, shall be endorsed upon the said notice of abandonment, and the said notice so endorsed shall be filed among the records of the said court.

Guardians and officers interested to have access to the lunatic.

312. In every case of an inquiry, or appeal as to the union in which a pauper lunatic is settled, the guardians, clerks of the guardians, and relieving officers of every union interested in the inquiry or appeal, and every person duly authorised by them respectively, and the clerk of the local authority interested in the inquiry or appeal, and every person duly authorised by him, shall at all reasonable times be allowed free access, in the presence of the medical attendant, to the lunatic to examine him as to the premises.

Sec. 31 of 42 & 43 Vict. c. 49. not to apply.

313. The provisions of section thirty-one of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, shall not apply to appeals under this part of this Act.

Recovery of Expenses.

Money ordered to be paid may be recovered by distress or action.

314.—(1) If the treasurer of any local authority, upon whom an order of justices for the payment of money under the provisions of this Act is made, refuses or neglects for twenty days after due notice of such order to pay the money, the money, together with the expenses of recovering the same, shall be recovered by distress and sale of the goods of the treasurer so refusing or neglecting, by warant under the hands of any two justices authorised to make the order for payment of the money, or by an action at law, or by any other proceeding in a court of competent jurisdiction, against the treasurer.

(2) If the guardians upon whom any such order is made refuse or neglect for such time as aforesaid to pay the money, the same, together with the expenses of recovering the same, may be recovered by an action at law or by any other proceeding in any such court.

(3) In case of any such action or proceeding no objection shall be taken to any default or want of form in any order for reception or maintenance, or in any certificate or adjudication under this Act, if such order or adjudication has not been appealed against, or if appealed against has been affirmed.

Part XI.

Penalties, Misdemeanors, and Proceedings.

Lunatics not to be detained except in accordance with Act.

315.—(1) Every person who, except under the provisions of this Act, receives or detains a lunatic, or alleged lunatic, in an institution for lunatics, or for payment takes charge of, receives to board or lodge, or detains a lunatic or alleged lunatic in an unlicensed house, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and in the latter case shall also be liable to a penalty not not exceeding fifty pounds.

(2) Except under the provisions of this Act, it shall not be lawful for any person to receive or detain two or more lunatics in any house unless the house is an institution for lunatics or workhouse.

(3) Any person who receives or detains two or more lunatics in any house, except as aforesaid, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Neglect to send notices on admission a misdemeanor.

316. The manager of any hospital or licensed house, and any person having charge of a single patient who omits to send to the Commissioners the prescribed documents and information upon the admission of a patient, or to make the prescribed entries, and give the prescribed notices upon the removal, discharge, or death of a patient, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and in the case of a single patient shall also be liable to a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds.

Misstatements.

317.—(1) Any person who makes a wilful misstatement of any material fact in any petition, statement of particulars, or reception order under this Act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

(2) Any person who makes a wilful misstatement of any material fact in any medical or other certificate, or in any statement or report of bodily or mental condition under this Act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

(3) A prosecution for a misdemeanor under this section shall not take place except by order of the Commissioners, or by the direction of the Attorney-General or the Director of Public Prosecutions.

False entries.

318. Any person who in any book, statement, or return, knowingly makes any false entry as to any matter as to which he is by this Act or any rules made under this Act required to make any entry, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Notice to coroner of death.

319. If the manager of an institution for lunatics, or the person having charge of a single patient, omits to send to the coroner notice of the death of a lunatic within the prescribed time, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Penalty for non-compliance with the Act and rules.

320. Any person who makes default in sending to the Commissioners or any other person any return, report, extract, copy, statement, notice, plan, or document, or any information within his knowledge or obtainable by him, when required so to do under this Act or any other Act relating to lunacy, or any rules made under this Act or in complying with the said Acts or rules, shall for each day or part of a day during which the default continues, be liable to a penalty not exceeding ten pounds, unless a penalty is expressly imposed by this or any other Act for such default: Provided that all or any part of the cumulative penalties may be remitted by the court in any case in which it is made to appear to the satisfaction of the court that the original default or its continuance during any period of time arose from mere accident or oversight, and not from wilful or culpable neglect on the part of the person sued.

Obstruction.

321.—(1) Any person who obstructs any Commissioner or Chancery or other visitor in the exercise of the powers conferred by this or any other Act, shall for each offence be liable to a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds, and shall also be guilty of a misdemeanor.

(2) Any person who wilfully obstructs any other person authorised under this Act by an order in writing under the hand of the Lord Chancellor or a Secretary of State to visit and examine any lunatic or supposed lunatic, or to inspect or inquire into the state of any institution for lunatics, gaol, or place wherein any lunatic or person represented to be lunatic is confined or alleged to be confined, in the execution of such order, and any person who wilfully obstructs any person authorised under this Act by any order of the Commissioners to make any visit and examination or inquiry in the execution of such order, shall (without prejudice to any proceedings, and in addition to any punishment to which such person obstructing the execution of such order would otherwise be subject,) be liable for every such offence to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds.

Ill-treatment.

322. [¹] If any manager, officer, nurse, attendant, servant, or other person employed in an institution for lunatics or any person having charge of a lunatic, whether by reason of any contract, or of any tie of relationship, or marriage, or otherwise, illtreats or wilfully neglects a patient, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction on indictment, shall be liable to fine or imprisonment, or to both fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court, or be liable on summary conviction for every offence to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds nor less than two pounds.

Penalties for permitting escape and for rescue.

323. If any manager, officer, or servant of an institution for lunatics wilfully permits, or assists, or connives at the escape or attempted escape of a patient, or secretes a patient, he shall for every offence be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds nor less than two pounds.

Abuse of female lunatic.

324. [²] If any manager, officer, nurse, attendant, or other person employed in any institution for lunatics (including an asylum for criminal lunatics), or workhouse, or any person having the care or charge of any single patient, or any attendant of any single patient, carnally knows or attempts to have carnal knowledge of any female under care or treatment as a lunatic in the institution, or workhouse, or as a single patient, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction on indictment, shall be liable to be imprisoned with or without hard labour for any term not exceeding two years; and no consent or alleged consent of such female thereto shall be any defence to an indictment or prosecution for such offence.

By whom proceedings to be taken.

325.—(1) Except as by this Act otherwise provided, proceedings against any person for offences against this Act may be taken—

(a) By the secretary of the Commissioners upon their order for any offence;

(b) By the clerk of the visitors of any licensed house for an offence committed within their jurisdiction;

and such proceedings shall not abate by the death or removal of the prosecuting secretary or clerk, but the same may be continued by his successor, and in any such proceedings the prosecuting secretary or clerk shall be competent to be a witness.

(2) Except as by this Act otherwise provided, it shall not be lawful to take such proceedings except by order of the Commissioners, or of visitors having jurisdiction in the place where the offence was committed, or with the consent of the Attorney-General or Solicitor-General.

Recovery and application of penalties.

326. All penalties enforceable under this Act shall be recovered summarily according to the provisions of the Summary Jurisdiction Acts, and shall be paid—

a. When recovered by the secretary of the Commissioners, to such secretary;

b. When recovered by the clerk of the visitors of a licensed house, to the clerk of the peace for the county or borough, to be applied in the same way as money received for licences granted by the justices of the county or borough;

c. When recovered by a clerk of the visiting committee of an asylum, to the treasurer of the asylum for the purposes thereof;

d. In all other cases to the treasurer of the county or borough for which the convicting justices acted.

Appeals.

327. Any person aggrieved by an order of justices under this Act, other than orders adjudicating as to the settlement of a lunatic pauper and providing for his maintenance, may appeal to a court of quarter sessions, subject to the conditions and regulations of the Summary Jurisdiction Acts.

Secretary of State may direct prosecution.

328. A Secretary of State on the report of the Commissioners or visitors of any institution for lunatics may direct the Attorney-General to prosecute on the part of the Crown any person alleged to have committed a misdemeanor under this Act.

Evidence upon prosecution.

329.—(1) Where any person is proceeded against under this Act on a charge of omitting to transmit or send any copy, list, notice, statement, report or other document required to be transmitted or sent by such person, the burden of proof that the same was transmitted or sent within the time required shall lie upon such person; but if he proves by the testimony of one witness upon oath that the copy, list, notice, statement, report or document in respect of which the proceeding is taken was properly addressed and put into the post in due time, or (in case of documents required to be sent to the Commissioners or a clerk of the peace or a clerk to guardians) left at the office of the Commissioners or of the clerk of the peace or clerk to guardians, such proof shall be a bar to all further proceedings in respect of such charge.

(2) In proceedings under this Act, where a question arises whether a house is or is not a licensed house or registered as a hospital, it shall be presumed not to be so licensed or registered unless the licence or certificate of registration is produced, or sufficient evidence is given that a licence or certificate is in force.

Protection to persons putting the Act in force.

330.—(1) A person who before the passing of this Act has signed or carried out or done any act with a view to sign or carry out an order purporting to be a reception order, or a medical certificate that a person is of unsound mind, and a person who after the passing of this Act presents a petition for any such order, or signs or carries out or does any act with a view to sign or carry out an order purporting to be a reception order, or any report or certificate purporting to be a report or certificate under this Act, or does anything in pursuance of this Act, shall not be liable to any civil or criminal proceedings whether on the ground of want of jurisdiction or on any other ground if such person has acted in good faith and with reasonable care.

(2) If any proceedings are taken against any person for signing or carrying out or doing any act with a view to sign or carry out any such order, report, or certificate, or presenting any such petition as in the preceding sub-section mentioned, or doing anything in pursuance of this Act, such proceedings may, upon summary application to the High Court or a Judge thereof, be stayed upon such terms as to costs and otherwise as the Court or Judge may think fit, if the Court or Judge is satisfied that there is no reasonable ground for alleging want of good faith or reasonable care.

[S. 331 (as to actions by persons detained as lunatics) rep. 56 & 57 Vict. c. 61, s. 2; see that Act.]

Commissioners and visitors may summon witnesses.

Form 22.

332.—(1) The Commissioners, or any two of them, and also the visitors of any licensed house, or any two of them, may, as they see occasion, require, by summons, under the common seal of the Commission, if by the Commissioners, and if by two only of the Commissioners or by two visitors, then under the hands and seals of such two Commissioners or two visitors, as the case may be, any person to appear before them to testify on oath touching any matters respecting which such Commissioners and visitors respectively are by this Act authorised to inquire (which oath such Commissioners or visitors are hereby empowered to administer).

(2) Every person who does not appear pursuant to the summons, or does not assign some reasonable excuse for not appearing, or who appears and refuses to be sworn or examined, shall, on being convicted thereof before a court of summary jurisdiction for every such neglect or refusal, be liable to a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds.

(3) Any two or more Commissioners or visitors may, if they think fit, examine on oath any person appearing before them as a witness, without having been summoned.

(4) Any Commissioners or visitors who summon a person to appear and give evidence, may direct the Secretary of the Commissioners or the clerk of such visitors, as the case may be, to pay to such person all reasonable expenses of his appearance and attendance, the same to be considered as expenses incurred in the execution of this Act, and to be taken into account and paid accordingly.

Part XII.

Miscellaneous Provisions, Definitions, Repeal.

Indemnity to Bank and others.

333. This Act, and every order purporting to be made under this Act, shall be a full indemnity and discharge to the Bank and every other company and society and their respective officers and servants, and all other persons respectively, for all acts and things done or permitted to be done pursuant thereto, or pursuant to the Rules under this Act, so far as relates to any property in which a lunatic is interested either in his own right, or as trustee or mortgagee, and it shall not be necessary to inquire into the propriety of any order purporting to be made under this Act relating to any such property or the jurisdiction to make the same.

Meaning of word commission in other Acts extended.

334. Where in any Act of Parliament, order or rule of court, or instrument, reference is made to a commission of lunacy, or the inquisition thereon, the general commission and the inquisition, or certificate operating as an inquisition, and the issue and verdict thereon respectively in this Act mentioned, shall be deemed to be included in the reference.

Pension of lunatic payable by public department.

Forms 16, 17.

335. When any sum in respect of pay, pension, superannuation, or other allowance, or annuity under the control or management of any public department, is payable to any person, in respect either of service as a civil servant or of military or naval service or of provision for a widow or child of a person employed in civil, military, or naval service, and the person to whom the sum is payable is certified by a justice or minister of religion, and by a medical practitioner, to be unable by reason of mental disability to manage his or her affairs, the public department may pay so much of the said sum as the department may think fit to the institution or person having the care of the disabled person, and may pay the surplus, if any, or such part thereof as the department may think fit, for or towards the maintenance and benefit of the wife or husband and relatives of the disabled person, and the department shall be discharged from all liability in respect of any sums so paid.

Reception orders before Act.

336. In the case of orders made before the commencement of this Act for the reception of private patients, the person who signed the reception order shall have all the powers and be subject to the obligations by this Act conferred or imposed upon the petitioner for a reception order, and the provisions of this Act relating to persons upon whose petition a reception order was made shall apply in the case of a person who before the commencement of this Act has signed an order for the reception of a private patient, as if the order had been made after the commencement of this Act upon a petition presented by him.

Power to amalgamate the lunacy departments.

337.—(1) The Lord Chancellor may, if it seems expedient to him so to do, by order under his hand, amalgamate the office of the Masters and their staff, and the office of the Chancery Visitors and their staff, and may amalgamate such offices, or either of them, with the office of the Commissioners, and may give such directions as he may think fit for the reconstitution of the Commissioners, and for the exercise and performance of the powers and duties of the Commissioners, and of the officers and staff amalgamated respectively under any order under this section.

(2) In the event of any such amalgamation, the Lord Chancellor may, with the concurrence of the Treasury, fix the qualifications and salaries of the members of the amalgamated office and of the staff attached thereto, and may, with such concurrence, increase or diminish the number of such members and staff.

(3) An order under this section shall not be made so as to prejudice the rights of the Masters, Visitors, and Commissioners respectively holding office at the passing of this Act.

(4) The Lord Chancellor may by order direct that such proportion as he may consider reasonable of the expenses incurred in carrying any such amalgamation into effect, including the cost of providing office accommodation, shall be paid out of the percentage charged on the incomes of lunatics.

Power to make rules.

338.—(1) It shall be lawful for the Commissioners, with the approval of the Lord Chancellor, by rules, to prescribe the books to be kept in institutions for lunatics and houses for single patients, and the entries to be made therein, and the returns, reports, extracts, copies, statements, notices, plans, documents, and information to be sent to the Commissioners or any authority or person, and the persons by whom, the times within which, and the manner in which, such entries, returns, reports, extracts, copies, statements, notices, plans, documents, and information are to be made and sent; and also by rules to prescribe forms for the purposes aforesaid in addition to or in substitution for any forms now in use.

(2) [¹] Subject to the preceding sub-section, the Lord Chancellor may make rules . . . for carrying this or any other Act relating to lunacy into effect, and also for regulating costs in relation thereto.

(3) Where by any Act already passed or hereafter to be passed any application in lunacy is directed or authorised to be made by petition, or in any other specified manner, the Lord Chancellor may by rule direct in what manner the application is to be made.

(4) The Lord Chancellor and a Secretary of State respectively may by rules provide for preventing interference or delay in the exercise of the ordinary jurisdiction of the judges of county courts and magistrates respectively by the transfer of petitions and notices or otherwise as such rules may direct.

(5) Subject to any rules made under this section, the existing rules shall, so far as applicable, continue in force.

(6) All rules made under the provisions of this section shall be laid before Parliament within three weeks after they are made if Parliament is then sitting, and, if Parliament is not then sitting, within three weeks after the beginning of the then next session of Parliament, and shall be judicially noticed, and shall have effect as if enacted by this Act.

(7) A rule under the provisions of this section shall not come into operation until the expiration of one month after the same has been made and issued.[¹]

Forms.

339. Subject to rules made under this Act, the forms in the Second Schedule may be used, wherever applicable, with such modifications as circumstances may require, and if used, shall be deemed to be sufficient.

Savings as to criminal lunatics, &c. 49 & 50 Vict. c. 25.

340.—(1) Save as in this Act otherwise expressly provided this Act shall not extend to criminal lunatics.

(2) This Act shall not affect the provisions of the Idiots Act, 1886.

Definitions.

341. In this Act, if not inconsistent with the context—

“Asylum” means an asylum for lunatics provided by a county or borough, or by a union of counties or boroughs:

“The Bank” means the Governor and Company of the Bank of England:

“Clerk,” in relation to a local authority, means, where the local authority is a county council, the clerk of the council, and where the local authority is a borough council, the town clerk of the borough:

“Commissioners” means the Commissioners in Lunacy:

“Contingent right,” as applied to lands, includes a contingent and executory interest, a possibility coupled with an interest, whether the object of the gift or limitation of such interest or possibility be or be not ascertained, also a right of entry, whether immediate or future, and whether vested or contingent:

3 & 4 Will. 4. c. 74.

“Convey” and “conveyance” include the performance of all formalities required to the validity of conveyances by married women and tenants in tail under the Fines and Recoveries Act, 1833, and also surrenders and other acts which a tenant of copyhold lands can perform preparatory to or in aid of a complete assurance of such copyhold lands:

“County,” for the purpose of the powers exerciseable by justices of a county, does not include a county of a city or county of a town (except the City of London), but includes any county, riding, division, part or liberty of a county having a separate court of quarter sessions:

51 & 52 Vict. c. 41.

“County borough” has the same meaning as in the Local Government Act, 1888:

47 & 48 Vict. c. 64.

“Criminal lunatic” has the same meaning as in the Criminal Lunatics Act, 1884:

“District asylum” means an asylum provided by two or more counties in union or by any county or counties in union with any borough or boroughs:

“Dividends” includes interest and other annual produce:

4 & 5 Will. 4. c. 76.

“Guardians” means guardians[¹] appointed under the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1834, and the Acts amending the same, and includes guardians or other body of persons performing under any local Act the like functions as guardians under the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1834:

“Hospital” means any hospital or part of a hospital or other house or institution (not being an asylum) wherein lunatics are received and supported wholly or partly by voluntary contributions, or by any charitable bequest or gift, or by applying the excess of payments of some patients for or towards the support, provision, or benefit of other patients:

“Inquisition” includes an order, certificate, or verdict operating as an inquisition:

“Institution for lunatics” means an asylum, hospital, or licensed house:

“Justice” means a justice of the peace:

“Land” includes an undivided share of land:

“Lease” includes underlease:

“Lunatic” means an idiot or person of unsound mind:

“Magistrate” means a stipendiary magistrate and any magistrate appointed to act at any of the police courts of the metropolis:

“Manager” in relation to an institution for lunatics means the superintendent of an asylum, the resident medical officer or superintendent of a hospital, and the resident licensee of a licensed house:

“Masters” means the Masters in Lunacy:

“Medical officer” means, in the case of an asylum, the medical superintendent, or if the superintendent is not a medical practitioner the resident medical officer of the asylum, in the case of a hospital the superintendent, and in the case of a licensed house the resident medical practitioner, or if none the medical practitioner who visits the house as the medical attendant thereof:

21 & 22 Vict. c. 90.

49 & 50 Vict. c. 48.

“Medical practitioner” means a medical practitioner duly registered under the Medical Act, 1858, and the Acts amending the same, and the Medical Act, 1886:

“Mortgage” includes every estate, interest, or property in real or personal estate, which is a security for money or money’s worth:

“Next of kin” includes heir at law, and the persons entitled under the statutes for the distribution of the estates of intestates:

“Pauper” means a person wholly or partly chargeable to a union, county, or borough:

“Paymaster-General” includes the Assistant Paymaster-General for Supreme Court business:

[¹ “Possessed” includes any vested estate less than a life estate at law or in equity in possession or in expectancy in any lands]:

“Prescribed” means prescribed by this Act or by any rules under this Act:

“Private patient” means a patient who is not a pauper:

“Property” includes real and personal property, whether in possession, reversion, remainder, contingency, or expectancy, and any estate or interest, and any undivided share therein:

“Public department” means the Treasury, the Admiralty and a Secretary of State, and any other public department of the Government:

“Quarter Sessions” includes general sessions:

“Quarter sessions borough” means a borough having a separate court of quarter sessions:

“Reception order” means an order or authority made or given before or after the commencement of this Act for the reception of a lunatic, whether a pauper or not, in an institution for lunatics or as a single patient, and includes an urgency order:

“Relative” means a lineal ancestor or lineal descendant, or a lineal descendant of an ancestor not more remote than great-grandfather or great-grandmother:

[¹ “Seised” includes any vested estate for life or of a greater description, and shall extend to estates at law and in equity in possession or futurity in any lands.]

17 & 18 Vict. c. 104.

“Stock” includes any fund, annuity, or security transferrable in books kept by any company or society, or by instrument of transfer alone, or by instrument of transfer accompanied by other formalities, and any share or interest therein, and also shares in ships registered under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854[²] :

“Transfer” includes assignment, payment, and other disposition, and the execution, and performance, of every assurance and act to complete a transfer:

“Trust” and “trustee” include implied and constructive trusts, and cases where the trustee has some beneficial interest, and also the duties incident to the office of personal representative of a deceased person, but not the duties incident to an estate conveyed by way of mortgage:

“Union” means any parish or union of parishes for which there is a separate board of guardians:

“Visiting committee” means a committee of visitors of an asylum appointed under this Act:

30 Vict. c. 6.

“Workhouse” includes an asylum provided for reception and relief of the insane under the Metropolitan Poor Act, 1867, and the managers of every such asylum shall exercise the powers and perform the duties by this Act conferred and imposed upon the guardians of the union to which a workhouse belongs.

342. [Repeal of enactments in Fifth Schedule.]

. . . . This repeal shall not affect any jurisdiction or practice established, confirmed, or transferred, or salary or compensation or superannuation secured, by or under any enactment repealed by this Act.

SCHEDULES.

THE FIRST SCHEDULE.

Declaration to be made by a Master.

Sect. 111.

I, , declare that I will faithfully, impartially, and honestly, according to the best of my skill and knowledge, execute the powers and trusts committed to me as one of the masters in lunacy, and that without favour or affection, prejudice or malice.

Sect. 151.

Declaration to be made by a Commissioner.

I, , declare that I will discreetly, impartially, and faithfully execute all the powers and trusts committed to me as one of the Commissioners in Lunacy, and that I will keep secret all such matters as come to my knowledge in the execution of my office (except when required to divulge the same by legal authority, or so far as I feel myself called upon to do so for the better execution of my duties).

Sect. 157.

Declaration to be made by the Secretary and Clerks of the Commissioners.

I, , declare that I will faithfully execute all the trusts and duties committed to me as secretary of the Commissioners in Lunacy [or, as clerk of the Commissioners in Lunacy], and that I will keep secret all such matters as come to my knowledge in the execution of my office (except when required to divulge the same by legal authority).

Sect. 179.

Declaration to be made by Assistants to the Clerk of the Visitors.

I, , declare that I will faithfully keep secret all matters and things which come to my knowledge in consequence of my employment as assistant to the clerk of the visitors of licensed houses appointed for the county [or borough] of unless required to divulge the same by legal authority.

Sect. 339.

THE SECOND SCHEDULE.

Form 1.

Sects. 4, 5.

Petition for an Order for reception of a Private Patient.

In the matter of A.B. a person alleged to be of unsound mind.

To a justice of the peace for [or

To His Honour the judge of the county court of or To stipendiary magistrate for.]

The petition of C.D. of [¹] in the county of .

1. I am [²] years of age.

2. I desire to obtain an order for the reception of A.B. as a lunatic [³] in the asylum [or hospital or house as the case may be] of situate at [⁴]

3. I last saw the said A.B. at on the [⁵] day of

4. I am the [⁶] of the said A.B. [or if the petitioner is not connected with or related to the patient state as follows:]

I am not related to or connected with the said A.B. The reasons why this petition is not presented by a relation or connection are as follows: [State them.]

The circumstances under which this petition is presented by me are as follows: [State them.]

5. I am not related to or connected with either of the persons signing the certificates which accompany this petition as (where the petitioner is a man) husband, father, father-in-law, son, son-in-law, brother, brother-in-law, partner or assistant, (or where the petitioner is a woman) wife, mother, mother-in-law, daughter, daughter-in-law, sister, sister-in-law, partner or assistant.

6. I undertake to visit the said A.B. personally or by some one specially appointed by me at least once in every six months while under care and treatment under the order to be made on this petition.

7. A statement of particulars relating to the said A.B. accompanies this petition.

If it is the fact add:

8. The said A.B. has been received in the

asylum [or hospital or house as the case may be] under an urgency order dated the

The petitioner therefore prays that an order may be made in accordance with the foregoing statement.

[Signed]

full Christian and surname.

[¹ Date of the presentation of the petition.]

Sects. 4, 5, 11.

Form 2.

Statement of Particulars.

Statement of particulars referred to in the annexed petition [or in the above or annexed order].

The following is a statement of particulars relating to the said A.B. [¹] :—

Name of patient, with Christian name at length.

Sex and age.

†Married, single, or widowed.

†Rank, profession, or previous occupation (if any).

†Religious persuasion.

Residence at or immediately previous to the date hereof.

†Whether first attack.

Age on first attack.

When and where previously under care and treatment as a lunatic, idiot, or person of unsound mind.

†Duration of existing attack.

Supposed cause.

Whether subject to epilepsy.

Whether suicidal.

Whether dangerous to others, and in what way.

Whether any near relative has been afflicted with insanity.

Names, Christian names, and full postal addresses of one or more relatives of the patient.

Name of the person to whom notice of death to be sent, and full postal address if not already given.

Name and full postal address of the usual medical attendant of the patient.

(Signed)

When the petitioner or person signing an urgency order is not the person who signs the statement, add the following particulars concerning the person who signs the statement. {

Name with Christian name at length.

Rank, profession, or occupation (if any).

How related to or otherwise connected with the patient.

Sect. 6.

Form 3.

Order for reception of a private patient to be made by a Justice appointed under the Lunacy Act, 1890, Judge of County Courts, or Stipendiary Magistrate.

I, the undersigned E.F., being a Justice for

specially appointed under the Lunacy Act, 1890 [or the Judge of the County Court of

or the Stipendiary Magistrate for

] upon the petition of C.D., of [¹]

in the matter of A.B. a lunatic, [²] accompanied by the medical certificates of G.H. and I.J. hereto annexed, and upon the undertaking of the said C.D. to visit the said A.B. personally or by some one specially appointed by the said C.D. once at least in every six months while under care and treatment under this order, hereby authorise you to receive the said A.B. as a patient into your asylum [³] . And I declare that I have [or have not] personally seen the said A.B. before making this order.

Dated

(Signed)

E.F.

A Justice for

appointed under the above-mentioned Act, [or The Judge of the County Court of

or a Stipendiary Magistrate.]

To [⁴]

Sect. 11.

Form 4.

Form of urgency Order for the reception of a private patient.

I, the undersigned, being a person twenty-one years of age, hereby authorise you to receive as a patient into your house [¹] A.B., as a lunatic [²] , whom I saw last at

on the [³]

day of

. I am not related to or connected with the person signing the certificate which accompanies this order in any of the ways mentioned in the margin [⁴] . Subjoined [or annexed] hereto [⁵] is a statement of particulars relating to the said A.B.

(Signed)

Name and Christian name at length

Rank, profession, or occupation (if any)

Full postal address

How related to or connected with the patient

[If not the husband or wife or a relative of the patient, the person signing to state as briefly as possible: 1. Why the order is not signed by the husband or wife or a relative of the patient. 2. His or her connexion with the patient, and the circumstances under which he or she signs.]

Describing the asylum, hospital, or house by situation and name.

Dated this

day of

superintendent of

the

asylum [

hospital or resident licensee of the

house].

Sect. 8.

Form 5.

Certificate as to Personal Interview after Reception.

I certify that it would be prejudicial to A.B. to be taken before or visited by a justice, a judge of county courts, or magistrate.

(Signed)

C.D.,

(Medical Superintendent of the

Asylum or Hospital or Resident Medical Practitioner or Attendant of the

, or Medical Attendant of the said A.B.

Sect. 8.

Form 6.

Notice of Right to Personal Interview.

Take notice that you have the right, if you desire it, to be taken before or visited by a justice, judge of county courts, or magistrate. If you desire to exercise such right, you must give me notice thereof by signing the enclosed form on or before the

day of

Dated

Signed

C.D.,

Superintendent of the

Asylum or Hospital or Resident Licensee of

[or as the case may be.]

Sect. 8.

Form 7.

Notice of Desire to have a Personal Interview.

Dated

[Address]

I desire to be taken before or visited by a justice, judge, or magistrate having jurisdiction in the district within which I am detained.

Signed

Sects. 4, 11, 16, 23, 24.

Form 8.

Certificate of Medical Practitioner.

In the matter of A.B. of [¹]

in the county [²] of [³] ,

an alleged lunatic.

I, the undersigned C.D., do hereby certify as follows:

1. I am a person registered under the Medical Act, 1858, and I am in the actual practice of the medical profession.

2. On the

day of

, at [⁴] in the county [⁵] of

[separately from any other practitioner] [⁶] , I personally examined the said A.B. and came to the conclusion that he is a [lunatic, an idiot, or a person of unsound mind] and a proper person to be taken charge of and detained under care and treatment.

3. I formed this conclusion on the following grounds, viz.:—

(a) Facts indicating insanity observed by myself at the time of examination [⁷] , viz.:—

(b) Facts communicated by others, viz.:—[⁸]

[If an urgency certificate is required it must be added here. See Form 9.]

4, The said A.B. appeared to me to be [or not to be] in a fit condition of bodily health to be removed to an asylum, hospital, or licensed house.[⁹]

5. I give this certificate having first read the section of the Act of Parliament printed below.

Dated

(Signed)

C.D., of [¹⁰]

Extract from section 317 of the Lunacy Act, 1890.

Any person who makes a wilful misstatement of any material fact in any medical or other certificate, or in any statement or report of bodily or mental condition under this Act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Sects. 11, 28.

Form 9.

Statement accompanying Urgency Order.

I certify that it is expedient for the welfare of the said A.B., [or for the public safety, as the case may be] that the said A B. should be forthwith placed under care and treatment.

My reasons for this conclusion are as follows: [state them].

Sect. 24.

Form 10.

Certificate as to Pauper Lunatic in a Workhouse.

I, the undersigned Medical Officer of

Workhouse of the

Union, hereby certify that I have carefully examined into the state of health and mental condition of A.B., a pauper in the said workhouse, and that he is in my opinion a lunatic, and a proper person to be allowed to remain in the workhouse as a lunatic, and that the accommodation in the workhouse is sufficient for his proper care and treatment separate from the inmates of the workhouse not lunatics [or, that his condition is such that it is not necessary for the convenience of the lunatic or of the other inmates that he should be kept separate].

The grounds for my opinion that the said A.B. is a lunatic are as follows:

Dated

(Signed)

Medical Officer of the Workhouse.

Form 11.

Sect. 24.

Order for detention of Lunatic in Workhouse.

I, the undersigned C.D., a justice of the peace for

being satisfied that A.B., a pauper in the

workhouse of the

is a lunatic [or idiot or person of unsound mind] and a proper person to be taken charge of under care and treatment in the workhouse, and being satisfied that the accommodation in the workhouse is sufficient for his proper care and treatment separate from the inmates of the workhouse not lunatics [or, that his condition is such that it is not necessary for the convenience of the lunatic or of the other inmates that he should be kept separate] hereby authorise you to take charge of, and, if the workhouse medical officer shall certify it to be necessary, to detain the said A.B. as a patient in your workhouse. Subjoined is a statement of particulars respecting the said A.B.

(Signed) C.D.,

A justice of the peace for

Dated

To the Master of the

Workhouse

of the

Statement of Particulars.

Name of patient and christian name at length.

Sex and age.

Married, single, or widowed.

Condition of life and previous occupation (if any).

Religious persuasion as far as known.

Previous place of abode.

Whether first attack.

Age (if known) on first attack.

When and where previously under care and treatment.

Duration of existing attack.

Supposed cause.

Whether subject to epilepsy.

Whether suicidal.

Whether dangerous to others.

Whether any near relative has been afflicted with insanity.

Name and Christian name and address of nearest known relative of the patient and degree of relationship if known.

I certify that to the best of my knowledge the above particulars are correct.

[To be signed by the relieving officer.]

Sect. 16.

Form 12.

Order for reception of a Pauper Lunatic or Lunatic wandering at large.

I, C.D., having called to my assistance E.F. of

, a duly qualified medical practitioner, and being satisfied that A.B. [describing him] is a pauper in receipt of relief [or in such circumstances as to require relief for his proper care and maintenance], and that the said A.B. is a lunatic [or an idiot, or a person of unsound mind] and a proper person to be taken charge of and detained under care and treatment, or that A.B. [describing him] is a lunatic, and was wandering at large, and is a proper person to be taken charge of and detained under care and treatment, hereby direct you to receive the said A.B. as a patient into your asylum [or hospital, or house]. Subjoined is a statement of particulars respecting the said A.B.

(Signed) C.D.

A justice of the peace for

Dated the

day of

one thousand eight hundred and

To the superintendent of the asylum for the county [or borough] of

[or the lunatic hospital of

; or E.F.

proprietor of the licensed house of

; describing the asylum, hospital, or house].

Note.—Where the order directs the lunatic to be received into any asylum, other than an asylum of the county or borough in which the parish or place from which the lunatic is sent is situate, or into a registered hospital or licensed house, it shall state, that the justice making the order is satisfied that there is no asylum of such county or borough, or that there is a deficiency of room in such asylum; or (as the case may be) the special circumstances, by reason whereof the lunatic cannot conveniently be taken to an asylum for such first-mentioned county or borough.

Statement of Particulars.

Statement of particulars referred to in the above or annexed order.

The following is a statement of particulars relating to the said A.B. [¹] :—

Name of patient, with Christian name at length.

Sex and age.

†Married, single, or widowed.

†Rank, profession, or previous occupation (if any).

†Religious persuasion.

Residence at or immediately previous to the date hereof.

†Whether first attack.

Age on first attack.

When and where previously under care and treatment as a lunatic, idiot, or person of unsound mind.

†Duration of existing attack.

Supposed cause.

Whether subject to epilepsy.

Whether suicidal.

Whether dangerous to others, and in what way.

Whether any near relative has been afflicted with insanity.

Union to which lunatic is chargeable.

Names, Christian names, and full postal addresses of one or more relatives of the patient.

Name of the person to whom notice of death to be sent, and full postal address if not already given.

(Signed)

G.H.

To be signed by the Relieving Officer or Overseer.

[Form 13 rep. 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 29]

Sect. 229.

Form 14.

Consent to the admission of a boarder.

We hereby sanction the admission of A.B. as a boarder into for the term of

from the

day of

in accordance with the provisions of the statute and in terms of A.B.’s application.

(Signed)

Two of the Commissioners in Lunacy.

[or Two of the justices for

Dated the

day

18 .

Sect. 13.

Form 15.

Order for Reception of a Lunatic not under proper care and control, or cruelly treated or neglected, to be made by a Justice appointed under the Lunacy Act, 1890.

I, the undersigned C.D., being a Justice for

specially appointed under the Lunacy Act, 1890, having caused A.B. to be examined by two duly qualified medical practioners, and being satisfied that the said A.B. is a lunatic not under proper care and control [or is cruelly treated or neglected by the person having the care or charge of him,] and that he is a proper person to be taken charge of and detained under care and treatment, hereby direct you to receive the said A.B. as a patient into your asylum [or hospital or house]. Subjoined is a statement of particulars respecting the said A.B.

(Signed)

A justice of the peace for appointed under the above-mentioned Act.

Dated

To the Superintendent of the Asylum for

, or of the lunatic hospital of

, or the resident licensee of the licensed house at

Statement of Particulars.

Statement of particulars referred to in the above or annexed order.

The following is a statement of particulars relating to the said A.B. [¹] :—

Name of patient, with Christian name at length.

Sex and age.

†Married, single, or widowed.

†Rank, profession, or previous occupation (if any).

†Religious persuasion.

Residence at or immediately previous to the date hereof.

†Whether first attack.

Age on first attack.

When and where previously under care and treatment as a lunatic, idiot, or person of unsound mind.

†Duration of existing attack.

Supposed cause.

Whether subject to epilepsy.

Whether suicidal.

Whether dangerous to others, and in what way.

Whether any near relative has been afflicted with insanity.

Union to which lunatic is chargeable.

Names, Christian names, and full postal addresses of one or more relatives of the patient.

Name of the person to whom notice of death to be sent, and full postal address if not already given.

(Signed)

To be signed by the relieving officer, overseer, or other person on whose information the order is made.

Form 16.

Sect. 335.

Certificate of Disability of Person entitled to Payments from a Public Department.

, being a justice of the peace for or the rector, or vicar, or minister [state the denomination and residence], hereby certify that I know the said A.B., and that I believe him or her to be unable, by reason of mental disability, to manage his or her affairs; and I further certify that I believe the family of the said A.B. to consist of

Dated

Signed [Name].

[Place of abode.]

Form 17.

Sect. 335.

Medical Certificate of Disability of Person entitled to Payments from a Public Department.

, being a person registered under the Medical Act, 1858, and in the actual practice of my profession, hereby certify that I have this day visited and personally examined A.B., and that the said A.B. is unable, by reason of mental disability, to manage his or her affairs, and that I have formed this conclusion on the following grounds, viz.: [state them].

Dated

Signed [Name].

[Postal address in full.]

Form 18.

Sect. 207.

Form of Licence by Commissioners for a House not previously licensed.

Know all men, that we, the Commissioners in Lunacy, do hereby certify that A.B. of

in the parish of

in the county of

has delivered to us a plan and description of a house and premises situate at

in the county of

proposed to be licensed for the reception of lunatics, and we, having considered and approved the same, do hereby authorise the said A.B. (he undertaking to reside therein) to use the said house and premises for the reception of

male [or

female, or

male and

female] lunatics, of whom not more than

shall be private patients, for

calendar months from this date.

Sealed with our common seal this

day of

18 .

Witness,

Y.Z., Secretary to the Commissioners of Lunacy.

Form 19.

Sect. 207.

Form of Licence by Justices for a House not previously licensed.

Know all men, that we, the undersigned justices of the peace, acting in and for

in general [or quarter or special] sessions assembled, do hereby certify that A.B. of

in the parish of

in the county of

has delivered to the clerk of the peace a plan and description of a house and premises, situate at

in the county of

proposed to be licensed for the reception of lunatics, and has applied to us for a licence thereof: And whereas the Commissioners in Lunacy have reported upon the said application, and their report has been received, and has been taken into consideration by us; Now we, having considered and approved the application, do hereby authorise the said A.B. (he undertaking to reside therein) to use the said house and premises for the reception of

male [or female or

male and

female] lunatics, of whom not more than

shall be private patients, for the space of

calendar months from this date.

Given under our hands and seals this

day of

18 .

Witness, Y.Z., Clerk of the Peace.

Sect. 207.

Form 20.

Licence by Commissioners or Justices for a House previously licensed.

Know all men, that we, the Commissioners in Lunacy [or we the undersigned justices of the peace for

in general (or quarter or special) sessions assembled] do hereby certify that A.B. of

in the parish of

in the county of

has delivered to us [or the clerk of the peace] a list of the number of patients now detained in a house and premises situate at

in the county of

licensed on the

day of

for the reception of lunatics, and we, having considered the same, do hereby authorise the said A.B., he undertaking to reside therein, to use the said house and premises for the reception of

male [or female or

male and

female] lunatics, of whom not more than

shall be private patients, for

calendar months from this date.

Sealed with our common seal [or given under our hands and seals], this day of

Witness,

Y.Z., Secretary to the Commissioners in Lunacy,

[or Clerk of the Peace].

Sect. 248.

Form 21.

Form of Agreement for uniting for the purpose of erecting or providing an asylum for the reception of lunatics.

It is agreed this

day of

between the visiting committees for the county of

and the borough of

[as the case may be], that the said county and borough [as the case may be], shall henceforth be united for the purposes of the Lunacy Act, 1890; and that an asylum for the reception of lunatics, with all necessary buildings, courts, yards, and outlets, shall be immediately provided and properly fitted up and accommodated for the purposes mentioned in the said Act; and that the necessary expenses attending the providing, building, fitting up, repairs, and maintenance of the said asylum shall be defrayed by the said county and borough, so united, in the following proportions, such proportions being fixed according to the probable extent of the accommodation required for the lunatics of the contracting county and borough; (that is to say,)

The county of	Five ninths of the said expenses.
The borough of	Four ninths of the same.

[as the case may be, or if the expenses are not fixed, with reference to the probable extent of the accommodation, insert instead of the last clause.]

The expenses shall be from time to time charged upon and raised by such county and borough in proportion to their respective populations as stated in the last return for the time being made of the same under the authority of Parliament.

And it is further agreed, that the committee of visitors to superintend the building, erection, and management of the said asylum shall be appointed in the following proportions; the council for the said county of

shall appoint^*

, and the council for the borough of

shall appoint^*

and the proportions in which the said committee of visitors are to be appointed as aforesaid may be from time to time varied, with the consent in writing under the hands of the greater number of visitors of the said county and borough, and with the consent of the Commissioners in Lunacy, And hereunto, we, the undersigned, being the majority of each of the committees appointed by the said councils respectively, do on behalf of the said councils set our hands and seals, this day of

Sect. 332.

Form 22.

Form of Summons.

We, the Commissioners in Lunacy [or we whose names are hereunto set and seals affixed, being two of the Commissioners in Lunacy, or visitors of

], do hereby summon you personally to appear before us at

in the parish of

in the county of

next the

day of

at the hour of

in the

noon of the same day, and then and there to be examined, and to testify the truth touching certain matters relating to the execution of the Lunacy Act, 1890.

Sealed with the common seal of “The Commissioners in Lunacy” [or Given under our hands and seals] this

day of

Sect. 208.

THE THIRD SCHEDULE.

Places within immediate Jurisdiction of Commissioners.

The cities of London and Westminster, the counties of London and Middlesex, and the following parishes and places; (that is to say) Barnes, Kew Green, Mortlake, Merton, Mitcham, and Wimbledon, in the county of Surrey; Southend, in the county of Kent; and East Ham, Leyton, Leyton-stone, Low Leyton, Plaistow, West Ham, and Walthamstow, in the connty of Essex; and also every other place, if any, within the distance of seven miles from any part of the cities of London or Westminster, or of the borough of Southwark.

THE FOURTH SCHEDULE.

Sects. 169, 240, 245, 246.

Boroughs the Councils of which are Local Authorities under this Act.

Barnstaple.	. . . .
Bedford.	Newark.
Berwick-on-Tweed.	Newbury.
Bridgwater.	Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Bury St. Edmunds.	New Sarum.
Cambridge.	New Windsor.
Colchester.	Penzance.
Doncaster.	Poole.
. . . .	Rochester.
Grantham.	Scarborough.
Gravesend.	Shrewsbury.
Guildford.	Tiverton.
Hereford.	Warwick.
King’s Lynn.	Wenlock.
London (City of).	Winchester.

[Sched. 5 rep. 8 Edw. 7. c. 49 (S.L.R.).]

[¹ Amended by 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 24; see that Act.]

[¹ Amended by 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, ss. 4, 5; see that Act.]

[¹ Amended by 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 6; see that Act.]

[¹ Substituted by 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 7.]

[¹ Restricted by 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 8.]

[¹ Words in brackets added by 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 9 (1).]

[² Substituted for “visitors” by 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 9 (2).]

[³ Substituted by 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 9 (2).]

[¹ Words in brackets added by 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 10.]

[¹ Words in brackets added by 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 11.]

[¹ Sub-s. (2) extended to all inquisitions by 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 26.]

[¹ As to deputy Masters, and appeals from Masters, see 8 Edw. 7. c. 47. ss. 3, 4.]

[¹ Amended by 8 Edw. 7. c. 47, s. 1; see that Act.]

[¹ Substituted by 8 Edw. 7. c. 47, s. 2.]

[¹ Extended by 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 27 (3); see that Act.]

[¹ Power extended to alteration of regulations with approval of Secretary of State by 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65. s. 12.]

[¹ Amended by 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 13; see that Act.]

[¹ Words in brackets added by 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 16.]

[¹ Provisions of Part X. applied to lunatics becoming paupers by 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 22.]

[¹ Applied to I. with modifications, 1 Edw. 7. c. 17, s. 2.]

[² Applied to I., 1 Edw. 7. c. 17, s. 2.]

[¹ Extended by 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 27 (2).]

[¹ But see 56 & 57 Vict. c. 66, s. 1 (3).]

[¹ See now 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73, ss. 20, 24.]

[¹ Added by 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 28.]

[¹ Added by 54 & 55 Vict. 65, s. 28.]

[² This Act is rep. by 57 & 58 Vict. c. 60, s. 745, which substitutes a reference to that Act.]

[¹] Full postal address and rank, profession, or occupation.

[²] At least twenty-one.

[³] or an idiot or person of unsound mind.

[⁴] Insert a full description of the name and locality of the asylum, hospital, or licensed house, or the full name, address, and description of the person who is to take charge of the patient as a single patient.

[⁵] Some day within 14 days before the date of the presentation of the petition.

[⁶] Here state the connection or relationship with the patient.

[¹] If any particulars are not known, the fact is to be so stated. [Where the patient is in the petition or order described as an idiot omit the particulars marked †].

[¹ Words in brackets substituted by 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 23.]

[¹] Address and description.

[²] Or an idiot or person of unsound mind.

[³] Or hospital or house or as a single patient.

[⁴] To be addressed to the medical superintendent of the asylum or hospital, or to the resident licensee of the house in which the patient is to be placed.

[¹] Or hospital or asylum or as a single patient.

[²] Or an idiot or a person of unsound mind.

[³ Some day within two days before the date of the order.

[⁴] Husband, wife, father, father-in-law, mother, mother-in-law, son, son-in-law, daughter, daughter-in-law, brother, brother-in-law, sister, sister-in-law, partner, or assistant.

[⁵] See Form 2.

[¹] Insert residence of patient.

[²] City or borough, as the case may be.

[³] Insert profession or occupation, if any.

[⁴] Insert the place of examination, giving the name of the street, with number or name of house, or should there be no number the christian and surname of occupier.

[⁵] City or borough, as the case may be.

[⁶] Omit this where only one certificate is required.

[⁷] If the same or other facts were observed previous to the time of the examination, the certifier is at liberty to subjoin them in a separate paragraph.

[⁸] The names and christian names (if known) of informants to be given, with their addresses and descriptions.

[⁹] Strike out this clause in case of a private patient whose removal is not proposed.

[¹⁰] Insert full postal address.

[¹] If any particulars are not known, the fact is to be so stated. [Where the patient is in the order described as an idiot omit the particulars marked†.]

^* Insert in these blanks either the number or the proportion of visitors; and where the number of the committee of visitors is not fixed in the agreement, but only the proportions, a provision shall be made by the agreement for fixing from time to time the number of such committee.

Lunacy Act, 1890 Permanent Page URL

Lunacy Act, 1890

Permanent Page URL