It was impossible, however, to make the two sides of the
account equal each other. At the end of the second day the cashier
confessed the crime, and transferred his private property to the bank.
Marchant did nothing. He came to the Rhode Island edge of the bridge,
where we had some consultations with him, but without any result
advantageous to the bank.

In 1847 I was a member of a joint committee to investigate the subject
of insanity in the State, and to visit asylums in other States, the
object being the erection of a second hospital for the care and
treatment of the insane. At the time the only asylum under the control
of the State was that at Worcester. There was a second at Somerville
for the treatment of private patients. This was under the control of
the Massachusetts General Hospital. The hospital at Worcester was
under the management of Dr. Woodward, and each years for many years the
reports had set it forth as a well organized and well managed
institution. At the beginning of our labors we visited the Worcester
Hospital. I was then ignorant of the treatment of the insane, but I
was shocked by the sight of women in the cells in the basement, who had
no bedding but straw, and some of whom had no clothing whatever.

The committee visited the McLean Asylum at Somerville; the Butler
Hospital, Rhode Island; the Utica and Bloomingdale Asylums, New York;
the Trenton Hospital, the Kirkbride Hospital, and the Philadelphia Alms
House, and in none of these institutions did we find any person naked
or confined in a cell. The furiously insane were dressed, the arms
were tied so as to limit the use of the hands, and the hands were
covered with padded mittens. The Worcester Hospital was the poorest
institution of all. Our chairman, the Rev. Orin S. Fowler, afterwards
a member of Congress, was very indignant, and his report to the
Legislature aroused the State from its delusion in regard to the
Worcester Hospital. We examined many sites for the contemplated new
hospitals, but the Legislature postponed action.

During the year 1847 I was a member of a committee to examine and
report upon the securities held by the State. These securities were
chiefly the property of the Common School Fund, and they had been
derived from the sales of public lands in Maine owned jointly with
that State under the agreement made at the time of the separation.
Among these securities was a mortgage upon the property of Nathaniel
J. W