The Lunacy Commissioners presented some remarks on this question, indicating a similar view to that just advanced in their 'Further Report,' 1847. For instance (p. 287, _op. cit._), they observed:--
"How far a system of this kind, which virtually places in the hands of the masters, many of whom are ignorant, and some of whom maybe capricious and tyrannical, an almost absolute control over the personal liberty of so many of their fellow men, is either warranted by law, or can be wholesome in itself, are questions which seem open to considerable doubt. Probably if the legality of the detention came to be contested before a judicial tribunal in any individual case, the same considerations of necessity or expediency which originally led to the practice, might be held to justify the particular act, provided it were shown that the party complaining of illegal detention could not be safely trusted at large, and that his detention, therefore, though compulsory, instead of being a grievance, was really for his benefit as well as that of the community."
Again, in the second place, the law, without direct legislation to that effect, yet admits,--by the provisions it makes for pauper lunatics not in asylums or licensed houses, and by the distinction it establishes between persons proper to be sent to an asylum, and lunatics generally so-called,--that insane patients may be detained elsewhere than in asylums. For instance, by _sect._ lxvi. 16 & 17 Vict. cap. 97, 1853, provision is made for a quarterly visit by the Union or Parish Medical Officer to any Pauper Lunatic _not being_ in a Workhouse, Asylum, Registered Hospital, or Licensed House, in order that he may ascertain how the lunatic is treated, and whether he "may or may not properly remain out of an asylum." So likewise by _sect._ lxiv. of the same Act, the clerk or overseers are required to "make out and sign a true and faithful list of all lunatics chargeable to the Union or Parish in the form in schedule (D)." This form is tabular, and presents five columns, under the heading of "where maintained," of which three are intended for the registry of the numbers not confined in Asylums, Hospitals, and Licensed Houses, but who are (1) in workhouses, (2) in lodgings, or boarding out, or (3) residing with relatives.