AN EXTRAORDINARY BOOK.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 967, 12 June 1883, Page 2

AN EXTRAORDINARY BOOK.

The title Mr Roberts has selected for the work he has just issued has the ' i merit of being, fairly descriptive of the i scope of his book. It is “Iniquities of Lunacycraft and Hocus Pocus of Three Learned J udges in the first Law Case of the kind on this Side of the World, by a Great Victim to Them.” This is followed, not only by a short preface, but a “ preliminary key cote,” “a word to those who want ironwork,” descriptive of the difficulties enl. countered in purchasing materials for a 1 printing machine, and an explanation of some thirty abbreviations used in the volume, such as mag. for magistrate, l.c. for lunycraft, cs. for cantankerous, c. & t. for care and treatmerit,: t.o.s. for tower of strength, and Y.B. for Yarra Bend. It seems from the succeeding pages that Roberts .was aqcused of insanity, and that upon the certificate of two doctors he was confined ;in the Yarra Bend Lunatic' Asylum. He gives a vivid description of his sufferings in the asylum from association with the unclean in every , sense, the inability to sleep for noise, the bad food, brutal treatment of warders, etc., and makes serious accusations against the management. He at length got two friendly city doctors to examine him, and pronounce him sane. But the proceedings which followed 1 “before a Fudge in Chambers" were very unsatisfactory. The Chambers ... 1 farce 1 cost him Lao, and there was jaw and law for several -, months over it Sent back to bondage again while conscious of his sanity, it is no wonder that Mr ; - Roberts was near losing his equanimity under- “ a prolonged incubus equal to frying one alive in his own fat” But ‘fsome quiet, earnest, rational cursing as only a sane man in such a ..... position can curse,” made him himself' : again. “The therapeutics in hysteria are simple. , Excite anger, and the cure is effected. He was a true psychologist who first tickled a lady’s nose with a feather.” It is not necessary to follow Mr Roberts through the intricacies ot his dealings, with his enemies. Suffice it to say that he was too many , for them, and that he eventually regained his liberty. The matters alluded to in the latter part of his book are fully as diverting as those treated of in the former portion. The headings to the chapters are a fund of humor in themselves. There are dissertations on roasted mad doctors, boiled lunatics, juraping-jinglers, jaw, law, and logic, the great hocus-pocus, and “on etc and the Government.” With regard to the fare allowed in the Yarra Bend Asylum we are told: “ The tor bacco given to the patients was horrible, enough to make and keep them insane.” After reference to the Judge’s “summing down," in an action in which Mr Roberts recovered a farthing damages frqm a doctor who certified that he was mad (a certificate worse than a 1 death warrant), and kept him in the asylum for six months, the writer arrives at the conclusion that “ lunacycraft is the abomination and desolation of these times.” That he is in no way cast down, however, by the harsh treatment he complains of is shown by this cheerful announcement of a new literary effort at the ‘ end of the volume 1,1 Under consideration, a serio-comic story of * A Courtship ; a Cat and a Carrot ; or the Marriage Question. - Solved iat Last.”’ The public will, await the appearance of -this garden stuff romance with interest. Possibly; the author intends to illustrate the . meaning of Bunthorne when be said : Then a sentimental'passion of a vegetable--“ fashion Must excite your languid spleen ; ■ ■ ■■■ An attachment A la Plato for a bashful young. -,t. potato, Or a not-too-French French bean.

In one portion of bis book Mr Roberts gives expression to the annoyance he felt on one of the Supreme Court Judges saying that after glancing through some of his writings he thought him eccentric. Mr Roberts should comfort himself with the reflection that what is lunacy in one century is often sound sense in the next. It may be that,in some things he is a century in advance of his times. Strong individuality he certainly has. So much wit and wisdom as there is in this book on “ lunacycraft ” is not often found in so curious a garb. As the melancholy Jaques said to the philosophic Touchstone: “Motley’s the only wear!”— Age.'