The provision for the lunatic poor is said to have been for a long time very defective in Ireland. A hospital attached to the house of industry in Dublin, a large asylum at Cork, and cells connected with some of the county infirmaries, were all that existed for the safe custody and proper treatment of the insane poor. In 1810 a grant was made for the establishment of the Richmond Lunatic Asylum, with accommodation for 200 patients. In 1817 the subject was inquired into by a select committee,[49] in accordance with whose recommendation _the 57th George 3rd, cap. 106_,[50] was passed, empowering the lord lieutenant to fix certain districts within which lunatic asylums should be erected, the cost in the first instance to be advanced by government, but to be ultimately repaid by local presentments, from which also the maintenance of the asylums is to be derived. “When these institutions are completed, which is easily practicable within three years, every county in Ireland will be provided with receptacles for their lunatic poor; and if these shall not be found sufficient for incurable as well as curable cases, a ward or two may be attached to each at a moderate expense, and the exigency may be thus completely provided for.” This quotation is given from the inspector’s Report to the Irish government on the subject in 1830, and the committee express their satisfaction, that as regards “one of the most painful afflictions to which humanity is exposed, there has been provided within a few years, a system of relief for the Irish poor as extensive as can be wished, and as perfect and effectual as is to be found in any other country.” Still however the cases of idiots and incurable lunatics are not separately provided for; and the committee consider it important that curable and incurable cases should be kept distinct, and that space should not be appropriated to the safe custody of incurables, which would be more usefully employed in the treatment of cases where there was a probability of recovery. Every lunatic establishment in Ireland, whether public or private, is subject to the visitation of the inspectors of prisons, who report regularly upon the condition and management of these institutions. ----- [49] Of this committee Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald was chairman. [50] Ante, p. 79. -----