The proposition has been made (p. 179) to institute a Committee of Visitors of Workhouses, chiefly selected from the county magistracy; and it is one that will no doubt be generally approved. But to the further proposition, that the supervision of workhouse lunatics should be entirely entrusted to these Committees, and that the Commissioners in Lunacy should not be at all concerned in it, we do not agree; for, in the first place, we wish to see the Lunacy Commissioners directly interested in every lunatic in the kingdom, and acquainted with each one by their own inspection or by that of special officers acting immediately under their authority; and, in the second place, we desire to retain the visitation of the members of the Commission in the capacity of independent and experienced inspectors. The advantages of an independent body of visitors, as stated in the Commissioners' 'Further Report,' 1847 (p. 93), chiefly with reference to asylums (see p. 192), have much the same force when applied to the visitors of workhouses,--that is, if the insane in these latter receptacles are to be placed on an equality, as far as regards public protection and supervision, with their more fortunate brethren in affliction detained in asylums. But, besides the arguments based on the advantages accruing from an independent and experienced body of visitors, there is yet another to be gathered from the past history of workhouses and their official managers: for among the members of Boards of Guardians, to whom the interests of the poor in workhouses are confided, are to be found, in a large number of parishes, magistrates holding the position of ordinary or of honorary guardians; and, notwithstanding this infusion of the magisterial element, we find that almost incredible catalogue of miseries revealed to us by the Lunacy Commissioners to be endured by the greater number of lunatics in workhouses. In fact, to assign the entire supervision of workhouse lunatic inmates to a committee of visiting Justices is merely to transfer the task to another body of visitors, who have little further recommendations for the office than the Boards of Guardians as at present constituted. From these and other considerations, we advocate not only the visitation of lunatics in workhouses by the district medical officers proposed, but also, at longer intervals, by one or more of the Commissioners or of their assistants; and, if this idea is to be realized, an increase of the Commission will be necessary, at least until Union-houses are evacuated of their insane inmates.