MISTAKEN FOR A LUNATIC.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2065, 6 October 1880, Page 3

MISTAKEN FOR A LUNATIC.

Lord Chancellor Cairns, when travelling from Oxford to London recently, was unfortunate enough to get into a compartment of the train which had to be slipped at the ■ Hanwell station. Finding himself thus left behind, and that he would have to wait, his Lordship thought that he would kill time by making an inspection of the famous Hanwell Lunatic Asylum. He accordingly presented himself at the gate, rang the bell, and was speedily accosted by a porter attired in the well-known uniform of the asylum, who asked him what he wanted. “ Oh,” said the Chancellor, “ I merely want, as a matter of curiosity and interest, to look through the establishment.” “ Where is your order ?” demanded the porter. To this his Lordship replied that he had not obtained one, but added, “ I shall not want one, and you will merely have to take my card as your authority for admitting me.” “But my orders,” said the porter, “ are not to admit anyone without a properly signed order, and I must not leave my post to carry in any cards." “But, my man,” responded Lord Cairns, “ I am Lord Chancellor of England ;” upon which the porter burst into a loud laugh, and, with a comic leer in his eye, remarked, pointing with his thumb backward in the direction of the asylum, “We have three or four Lord Chancellors here, and several Archbishops of Canterbury too.”