ET. 45.] PATERNAL ANXIETY-REGARDING HIS SON.

403

however, that there might be danger of injuring his mind, by suddenly placing him in an asylum; and thought it would be better to have a keeper in the house, because, I believe, he pitied the poor mother when he saw her, as might be expected, dreadfully shocked at the idea of consigning him to such a place. I know, however, what will happen if a keeper comes to enforce medical treatment. Neither his mother, nor possibly myself, will be able to stand the sight and sound of a man employing force. It will require cooler minds than either she or I possess, to draw the right line of distinction between the force which a man must fairly employ, and the improper violence which we may suspect him of employing. I told Matilda this; but her abhorrence of an asylum could not be overcome. To-day she called on Mrs. Denman, who enforced my view of the subject in the strongest manner; and when she came home, she acknowledged her fears that a keeper in private lodgings will not do."

*

"Dr. W.

fairly warned me that the expence of his plan would be very great. My own conviction is, that, if we are justified in doing anything, we are justified in placing him in an asylum; and to this, I believe, it must inevitably come. Matilda will very soon perceive the necessity of this; but I feel myself called upon, both in prudence and delicacy, to leave her change of opinion, as far as possible, to its own course. Taking him to Sydenham is out of the question. + In short, I have thought with the most earnest calculation of probabilities on this subject; and, though not able to explain to you the reasons for my decision, so clearly as I could wish, I feel I must decide against the plan of treating him at home. . . Here the matter rests. I have had, as you may imagine, little sleep since I saw you.

T. C."

*+ In explanation of this feeling, the reader is referred to the note, page

351.

The event turned out exactly as Campbell had foreseen; the youth became less and less manageable, until Mrs. Campbell herself admitted that there was no alternative but an asylum. In the performance of this most painful duty, inquiries were made in various parts of the country for a temporary home, where the youth might have the double advantage of a kind friend and an experienced physician. This was happily discovered in the house of Dr. Finch, near Salisbury, where arrangements for his reception were instantly made; and thither the afflicted parents had the painful task of conducting their only child in the beginning of October. The records of this melancholy journey are preserved in a most interesting letter from Campbell to a friend, which I venture to give with very little abridgment.

"LONDON, October 15, 1822.

"I was in too violent a state of agitation to send you a distinct answer on Saturday. . To-day, Monday, I came home with Matilda, by the Salisbury coach, at seven in the morning, and have slept an hour or two since. It is much better that I have taken her to see our poor boy's abode, and the good people to whom I have consigned him. Their establishment speaks for itself; their kindness inspires unlimited confidence; and I have gained over my wife to an opinion that, in a case like the present, confidence should not be given by halves. I was determined, had the institution disappointed me, to have brought my boy back. As the case is quite otherwise, I have put him into Dr. F.'s hand, implicitly; and with a promise that he shall not be troubled with family interference. On this subject, it is not easy to tell you what I have felt.

The consolation on which Matilda dwelt was

ÆT. 45.] JOURNEY TO LAVERSTOCK WITH HIS SON.

405

that her boy should be well looked after; that her sisters* had all promised to go in succession to see him; and that the people of the institution should be well watched. It would not have been proper to argue harshly against this only prospect of comfort which a poor desolate mother proposed to herself: yet it was an alarming prospect to me."+ "Dr. F.'s asylum is too good to be submitted to injudicious espionage. A word of discontentment from Thomas, or an invidious remark of theirs, might have set things all at sixes and sevens.

"A sight of the house and patients, and a conversation with Dr. and Mrs. F., have left the most unequivocal conviction on my mind, that they are both intelligent and humane persons-zealously interested in the recovery of their patients, and that the soul and spirit of their system is mildness. I inquired what Dr. F.'s ideas were as to the effect of friends and relations visiting their patients. On that question I found that it was a high point of honour with him to prevent the suspicion of there being any secrets of the prison-house in his establishment. Every thing is open at all hours to inspection. I believe that if he could consciously commit an error, with regard to treatment, it would be this,-that, let the consequences be what they might, he would admit perhaps an ill-timed visitor sooner than risk his reputation by a breath of surmise, that anything under-hand can go on in his house. I asked him if the visits of friends were not sometimes prejudicial? 'Yes-very frequently,' he said: 'A lady, whom I now have, was on the point of recovery, when her husband would see her; and I reckon her to have been thrown

* Mrs. Sellar, Mrs. Wiss, of Liverpool, and Miss Sinclair, of Bath. One of Mrs. Campbell's sisters [page 351] was at this time afflicted by a similar complaint: therefore he says-My sisters-in-law-excellent as they are-" are not fit to be a committee on the treatment."

back a year in consequence of the interview. Observe, however, that a duty which I owe to myself is only to advise the friends of the afflicted to abstain from premature interviews; for, if I commanded them to do so, I should throw back my establishment instantly into that class of houses which are averse to being visited from suspicious motives.' I then told him that, having come to rely on his faith, kindness, and professional knowledge, I should not place my reliance with one grain of drawback.—I had perceived that, in my poor boy's case, Dr. F. had believed the taint to be of long standing, and that the cure, though not violent, might be stubborn. I therefore told him that I was aware the restoration of a human mind was not a job like restoring the colour of a pair of stockings.

I shall not, I said, put my boy in your hands with a view to let you be teased with importunate and impatient demands to have him back. I shall require to be personally informed of your mode of treatment, and his progress at moderate intervals. I know you will tell me everything: but his mother's mind is overwhelmed by the agony of maternal instinct; and she has relatives who, with the best intentions in the world, might ask to see him at improper times; and you must co-operate with me in preventing the possibility of this. bell,' he said: 'it shall be so. sentiment, that confidence is and

You are right, Mr. CampI approve entirely of your not to be given by halves;

you shall not repent your having trusted me implicitly. I will inform you distinctly of his progress, and of

the steps I take with him for his recovery.'

"I am happy to say that, before our departure, Dr. F. had won Matilda's confidence so completely, that, without an effort, she abandoned the idea of her sisters' and cousin's taking journeys to see our boy. She did not even look at his bed-chamber; but Thomas told us himself that it was

ÆT. 45.]

LAVERSTOCK ASYLUM-ARRANGEMENTS.

407

a very good one. We saw his fellow-patients, and his fare, and heard them speak in their absence of the incessant kindness of their host and hostess. His poor mother on the whole behaved very well." "I trust I shall now

be able to rally my scattered thoughts; fix them to business, and devote myself to reading and writing. Whether I have gained the harbour or not, I feel in retrospect, at least, as if I had been tossing at sea in a hurricane!

When his mind had become a little more composed, the particulars of the journey were thus continued:

"16th.-Having got only as far as Stockbridge on Friday night, I was put into a room infested by rats. I thought their revels behind the wainscotting would have terminated in their holding a dance in my bed. In fact, I was obliged to call up the landlord at midnight, and demanded another apartment. He came up with the best-natured astonishment, protesting that such a thing as a noise had never been complained of in that room. Then the landlady appeared and confirmed his testimony by declaring that Mr. Such-a-one had slept in the apartment for four months, and had discovered that the noise proceeded not from rats, but from the rustling of branches that had somehow or other got in between the lath and plaster. But whilst the branches were so ingeniously mimicking the races of rats, I knocked against the wall, and they were so obliging as to stop their noise. After a short pause, however, they began by degrees to imitate the scratching and squeaking of vermin, and that, even to mine hostess's conviction; so I got another bed; but I could not obtain repose from thoughts that were not much pleasanter than rats. In the morning, as you may suppose, I was exceedingly

nervous.

"When the postilion was fairly mounted, I could only bid him proceed to Dr. F.'s at Laverstock. Presently