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Excerpt from Evidence Taken Before a Committee of the House of Commons Respecting the Asylum at York: With Observations and Notes, and a Letter to the Committee &C, &C, &C
Taken before the Select Committee appointed to consider of Provisions being made for the better Regulation of Madhouses in England.
Luna T die Mali, 1815.
The Right Honourable George Rose, in the Chair.
Godfrey Higgins^ Esquire, called in, and examined.
here do you live?-At Skellow Grange, near Doncaster, in Yorkshire.
You are a Governor of the York Asylum, and a Magistrate of the West-Riding of Yorkshire?-I am.
Have you any knowledge of the state and condition of the York Lunatic Asylum, and the method of treatment of the patients in that Asylum ?-I have.
Have the goodness to state to the Committee, how you became possessed of that information?-In the year 1813, application was made to me to grant a warrant against a man who had assaulted a poor woman ; upon inquiry 1 found the man to be insane, and ordered him to be sent to the Asylum, at York: sometime afterwards he returned, and I was informed lie had been extremely ill used; (the name of the man was William Vickers;) in consequence of this, I published several letters and other documents, upon which various meetings of the Governors were held from time to time for the course of twelve months, until the 27th of August last; upou which day all the servants and officers of the house were dismissed, or their places declared vacant, except one. Not being perfectly satisfied writh what was done, I thought it incumbent upon me to publish a letter to Lord Fitzwilliam, as Lord Lieutenant of that Riding; in which, to the best of my knowledge, I stated every thing that I knew relating to the Institution and to the abuses which had taken place in that house. The Appendix contains a report of the Committee appointed to investigate the abuses, and the new Rules and Regulations.
[A Copy of this Pamphlet was laid upon the Table of the Committee.
In what condition did you find the Asylum when you visited it in the Spring Assize week of 1814?
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