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I would here state, in view of the trouble and anxiety of real philanthropic people, whose misfortune it is to have friends whose minds become unbalanced, that it has been suggested, and in fact, in two cases, one at Gardiner, and the other at Winthrop, Maine, -- carried into execution -- additions or cottages, made to the local Alms Houses, where insane persons will in future be confined, and where their common friends can at all times visit and observe their real situations, and the treatment they receive. It will be no matter of supererogation in me to say, that the investigation of my case, as recited, has undoubtedly brought about the above result in Gardiner and Winthrop, and I trust to God, that the precedent will be followed by all counties, towns and cities throughout the United States. State Institutions, if they are all conducted upon the atrocious and brutal plan of the Maine Insane Hospital, should be abolished. And, if I could be sustained in my views and wishes, by the philanthropic people of my day, cheerfully would I devote the residue of my life to their abrogation, and the amelioration of my fellow beings; suffering from this, the worst of ills flesh is heir to -- Insanity!

INCIDENTS OF THE FIRE.

I have learned one case since the fire that I think deserves notice, as it adds one more item to the multitude of other case of abuse. Mrs. Bickford, of Bowdoin, was carried to the hospital in March, 1850, in a depressed and melancholy situation from the loss of her husband. She had a brother who came to work in Augusta and he very naturally wished to see his sister, and went over twice to see her, but was both times peremtorily refused, upon the invariable plea, that it would be very injurious for her to see her friends; and as her brother did not understand that game of gammon, of course he went away satisfied with being told that she was doing well, &c., &c.

Well, on the morning of December 4th, when he saw the hospital was in flames, he was there as soon as his feet would carry him to the scene. He inquired for his sister, and learned that the females were all safe, and returned home for breakfast, after which he again went over in search of his sister, and found her at a neighbor's house, apparently as sane and well as ever when he saw her. He procured a horse and carriage, and started with her for home, and upon the way he learned from her what she had seen and passed through herself. She related her experience of the shower bath, and many other things in relation to herself and others, embracing the whole catalogue of abuses so many times repeated in this little history of that abode of terror, that it is unnecessary that I should repeat it; but I will say that she was a tailoress, and was kept at work much of the time at that business, and confirms the so oft repeated tales of the females, as well as males, being compelled to be the waiters and servants of the sick and feeble patients, and made to perform the menial services, which is the duty of tyrants who are placed over them, who are called the nurses, or the female attendants.

The fire has broken the bonds of one other female patient who had been incarcerated for six or seven years. She has returned to her children, and they and her former neighbors are perfectly astonished at her appearance and conduct, for instead of receiving her as a wild maniac, as they expected to find her, she has proved herself to be perfectly sane and rational, and her deportment is perfectly lady-like, so much so that they are amazed to think that she has been so long a prisoner in that vile den of infamy, that harem, which being filled with such females as the two above named, enabled Dr. Bates and the trustees in their report of 1850 to urge in such strong terms the necessity for the legislature to make the small appropriation of $30,000 for an additional wing for his Seraglio. Yes, citizens, if you will wipe the mote from your vision you will soon see where you have incarcerated your wives, sisters and daughters. Yes, just remove the veil from your eyes, and then if you are satisfied, all that I have to say is, then send them there to become the slaves and menials of those under whose care and custody they are placed; in whose vile company you would not permit them to remain a moment at your own houses, any sooner than you would send them to the Five Points of New York. Yes, ask all that have ever been there as patients or attendants, and if eight out of every ten do not corroborate my statements, if they are men or women of any intelligence, then you may call me crazy, insane, a madman or a fool, and I will return a voluntary exile from civilized society for the remainder of my pilgrimage on earth, without a murmur or word of complaint. I humbly trust that the hospital will be purified from all, both male and females who have ever had direct care or authority over the patients under the administration of Dr. Bates.

During the past session of Congress, through the intercession of Miss Dix the philanthropist, a bill passed the Senate granting ten millions acres of government land for the benefit of the indigent insane, to be divided among the States, no part of which was to be appropriated for building Asylums, but to be exclusively devoted to defray their expenses, as I understand it, in Asylums of a public or private character. Now I do not doubt, and neither do I think there is a person in the country that doubts the real philanthropic motives of Miss Dix in what she has done, and is doing for the insane, to alleviate their deplorable condition, for they are really deserving the sympathy of the humane and true christian; but she is in reality bringing upon them the greatest misery, wretchedness, suffering and woe it is possible for them to endure. I trust that Congress will never pass that bill, for the result will be to feed and pamper a pack of political blood hounds, who will eat it all out, in having the care and custody of those for whom it is designed, -- and although Miss Dix has probably visited every hospital in the country, yet she is as ignorant of the insane as she can possibly be. Although I am poor and needy, and would not knowingly do aught to injure a fellow mortal, yet I would earnestly beseech Congress never to pass that bill, but if they have land to appropriate for that purpose, they had better give it to families of insane persons who will go and settle upon it, or give a hundred acres or a quarter section to any poor person who has not any land, that will settle upon it, and let it be a homestead forever, for their heirs, and not subject to sale or disposal for anything but taxes; and not let the lands go into the hands of speculators; and ten million acres of land disposed of in that way will do more than ten millions of times the good that it would to be appropriated in the manner proposed by Miss Dix. Pass that bill, and there will soon be ten insane persons where there is now but one, for if there are funds to support them, there will be no lack of victims for the hospitals. But abolish all insane hospitals, and in one year there will not be more than one insane person where now there are ten, and about one in every ten of those would probably be put into jails, and the other nine would be taken care of at home or in Alms Houses, and thus would be saved to the community a vast sum of money and an incalculable amount of suffering.