lucus ab non lucendo, has not been absent from the minds of the Commissioners in search of the best evidence.

The sheriffs, whose official conduct has been animadverted upon, have made communications to the Secretary of State, as desired by him, and which, months ago, have been ordered by the House of Commons to be printed. But, nevertheless, the Act of Parliament, founded on the truthfulness of the Report, has been hurried through the Legislature, against the remonstrances of all the counties and burghs of Scotland, merely soliciting delay for inquiry, and without waiting to hear the explanations so essential to a well matured and effective measure.

The Sheriffs of Scotland, though entrusted with certain powers in lunacy, both by common law and under the statutes, were almost powerless to execute them for lack of the necessary machinery. The penalties for neglect were said to have been not enforced, because they were too severe in amount. But it is not the duty of a magistrate to prosecute before himself, and nothing can be more detrimental to the purity and stability of justice, than the confounding of the office of judge and prosecutor in one and the same person.

It is said that, under the statutes, the sheriff was not bound to rest satisfied with the medical certificates of insanity, but was entitled, nay bound, to procure further evidence. If so, it may be asked, how he was to prosecute any further inquiry? Where a caveat had been entered, or evidence offered, he doubtless would be bound to investigate. But when the near relatives brought the necessary medical writs, it would be a serious responsibility, in the event of injury to the party himself, or to the public, at his hands, if the sheriff, of his own motive, refused an instant order for safety, and insisted on an investigation for which no mode was provided by the

statute.

There were the half-yearly inspections by the sheriff of all asylums and mad-houses, and it would appear even of single persons boarded for hire (though this is by no means so clear). But, though attended by one or more medical persons, such inspection was altogether unavailing for any purpose save the general appearance of the inmates in cleanliness and comfort. The notion that such inspections could be the means of disclosing improper detentions, was absurd. Even with a few inmates, far less with such a multitude, the time which could be devoted for investigation of each person put it beyond possibility to arrive at any satisfactory result. If an examination of a prison is made, seldom are any guilty inmates found therein. All are, in the usual parlance, " innocent as the babe unborn." So, in asylums, all above the class of idiots are wise in their own eyes, and, according to their belief and statement, illegally detained by mad and cruel relations, to serve some sinister purpose. The lunatic soon learns the character and object of the inspector, and the quality of cunning is amongst the last of the active powers of the mind which are obscured.

Dr Ray remarks, "The sentiment of cunning holds but a low place in the scale of the animal faculties-being a merely animal instinct and is oftentimes observed to be rendered more active by insanity, so as to require the utmost vigilance to detect and defeat its wiles. One who is not practically acquainted with the habits of the insane, can scarcely conceive of the cunning which they will practise when bent on accomplishing a favourite object. Indeed, it may be said, without greatly distorting the truth, that the combined cunning of two maniacs, bent on accomplishing a certain object, is always a match for the sagacity of any sound individual."

It will be strange indeed, if, in any conversation to test the mental orthodoxy, the certified lunatic does not exhibit himself the victim, not of delirium, but of conspiracy. It is recorded that a lady, after being shown, by the celebrated Esquirole, through a large asylum, and having conversed with all its inmates, exclaimed at the close, "But where are the mad people!". Were sheriffs to liberate all who, on an inspection, appeared fit to be at large, there would be a continued ebb and flow of discharges and re-admissions, to the great retarding of the curative process, and with great danger to the relatives and medical persons, by whose instrumentality they were first placed in durance.

We remember one remarkable case illustrative of these observations. A highly talented and distinguished sheriff, on his inspection, was impressed with the high scientific conversation of an inmate, who claimed his liberty as being the victim of a conspiracy by his highly respectable relations. Mental pride, or a high conceit of his own intellectual powers, was his monomania. The worthy sheriff, to test his mind, desired him to write an essay on some abstruse scientific subject. He accordingly sent in an elaborate thesis on a mechanical subject, which was afterwards discovered to have been faithfully copied from a book. The sheriff, on this pregnant proof of capacity, ordered his instant liberation. In the moment of his victory, he printed and dedicated his essay to his liberator, and immediately instituted an action, in the Court of Session, against his relatives and the medical men, for false detention. He took a journey to the Menai Straits, and astonished the natives by a perilous passage, squirrel-like, from chain to chain, in examining and condemning the construction of the suspension bridge, and foretelling its speedy collapse. The disease became more and more developed and confirmed, and death at length relieved him and his relatives from their mutual contentions.

One peculiarity under the old law was, that, whilst the order of a sheriff was necessary for admission of a person to an asylum, no such order, or even certificate of sanity, was necessary for his release. So soon as the relatives or friends, or inspectors of the poor, were weary of paying for his board, he was discharged, however much more insane and unmanageable than when he was first admitted. Unless he be under warrant as a criminal lunatic, no form of liberation

was necessary. Most painful consequences have followed these most unwarrantable and injudicious releases. The conduct of the lunatic thus set at liberty, he knows not why and wherefore, very frequently leads to his re-committal as a dangerous lunatic, at the public expense. We are aware of such untimely releases being followed by actions of damages against the consenting friends, the medical certifiers, the sheriff-substitutes giving the order, and the officers of the asylum, all of whom were put to much trouble and expense, without indemnity.

On this important subject of release from restraint, the Commissioners are silent; but the recent statute has attempted to deal with the evil. Sections 92 and 93 are as follow :

"It shall be lawful for any Person, having procured and produced the Certificate of Two Medical Persons, approved by the Sheriff, of the Recovery of any Lunatic, or bearing that such Lunatic may, without Risk of Injury to the Public or to the Lunatic, be set at large, and also an Order from the Sheriff for the Liberation of the Lunatic, to require the Superintendent of the Asylum in which such Lunatic is to liberate such Lunatic, and such Lunatic shall be liberated accordingly; and it shall in like Manner be lawful for the Board, upon being satisfied by the Certificate of Two Medical Persons whom they may think fit to consult of the Recovery or Sanity of any Person confined as a Lunatic, to order the Liberation of such Person; and, previous to the Liberation of any such Person by Order of the Board or the Sheriff, Eight Days Notice in Writing shall be given of such intended Liberation to the Person at whose Instance such Lunatic was detained, or, in the Absence of such Person, to the nearest known Relative of such Lunatic, and, in the Case of a Pauper Lunatic, to the Party or Parish by whom the Expense of the Maintenance of the Pauper Lunatic was defrayed; and in all Cases of Removal or Liberation of any Lunatic the Superintendent of the Asylum shall enter or cause to be entered in the Register to be kept by such Superintendent the Particulars of the Removal or Liberation of such Lunatic, and the Date thereof, and the Authority on which such Removal or Liberation took place; and when any Lunatic has been discharged from any Asylum as incurable, the Fact of such Discharge shall thereupon be entered in the Register of the Asylum, with a Specification of the Place to which, and Person to whose Care, such Lunatic has been sent; and Copies of all such Entries shall, within Two clear Days of the same being made, be transmitted by the Superintendent to the Board."

"Provided always, That no such Removal or Liberation shall be competent or take place in regard to any Lunatic detained under the Sentence of any Court of Justice, without the Authority of such Court, or the Warrant of One of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State: Provided further, that if, by the Expiration of the Period of Confinement awarded by the Sentence of any Court of Law, any Lunatic would be entitled to be set at large, and such Lunatic be then uncured, it shall be lawful, upon Certificate to that Effect by Two Medical Persons, and upon an Order granted by the Sheriff, to detain such Lunatic in the Asylum in which such Lunatic then is, or to remove him to some other Asylum, as may be proper.”

What was needed for Scotland was a better system of medical inspection. A Board was not called for. But, if it was thought an indispensable form, according to recent use and wont, the English Board, with the addition of a Scotch member, and one or two Scotch inspectors, would have been amply sufficient to answer every object. Or, if the notion of placing Scotch lunatics under English superin

tendence, roused the dormant spikes of the Scotch thistle, there were the Prison Board and the Poor Law Board already in existence, neither of which are oppressed with labour, and both of which are already concerned with the matter-the one with criminal, and the other with pauper, lunatics. Inspectors of lunacy, placed under either of these Boards, would most effectually have answered every good purpose, at a tithe of the expense.

We greatly doubt if the Act recently added to the Statute Book, will be found to remove just cause of complaint; and another session will probably see, what is the usual concomitant to modern legislation, "An Act to explain and amend."

Of course the Lord Advocate, in the ungracious task of exercising the patronage which the new statute placed at his disposal, has not escaped public censure. For this he may be always prepared, however he may act. Our only regret in the matter is, that the able and amiable Sheriff of Fife was not at least offered a seat at the Board. Common gratitude surely required such an acknowledgment of his labours in the preliminary inquiry. A small crumb has fallen at last to Mr Forbes, as the reward of thirty-two years' patience. We believe that this gentleman is quite equal to the duties of his new office; but as he has been all his life a Conservative, we wish to know if the old principle of promotion has been abandoned. Are party ties in future to be thus rudely torn asunder? If it has been officially determined that the public service is no longer to be retarded or professional talent obscured by what Burke called "the littleness of Parliamentary politics," the change is undoubtedly a good one. But if the change really has been made, we think it is due to the Bar, and still more to the cause of political virtue, that some official intimation should be made of the fact. While on this subject, we may be permitted to express a hope that the office of Keeper of the Register of Sasines, vacant by the death of Mr Pringle of Whytbank, will be filled as it should be. This office legitimately belongs to the Writers to the Signet and Solicitors. The prizes which fall to their lot are few and far between; and such as do occur (e. g., the office referred to and that of Lord Clerk Register) were certainly never intended as sinecures for country gentlemen.

We understand that an additional Sheriff-Substitute is about to be appointed at Glasgow. The vacancy at Dunblane, caused by the death of Mr Cross, has been filled by the appointment of Mr John Graham, advocate. A new Sheriff-Substitute is also required at Cupar, owing to the death of Mr Grant.

THE

JOURNAL OF JURISPRUDENCE.

A FRENCH CRIMINAL TRIAL.

ON the twenty-fourth of June last, towards nine o'clock in the evening, two ladies, the sister and cousin of Monsieur Anglade, curé of the parish of Brassac, whose inmates they were, left the parsonage with some children whom they were taking to see a bonfire on the village green. The priest remained quite alone in his dwelling.

When the ladies returned after the conclusion of the festivities, they found the street-door fastened on the inside, and saw through the windows, a light moving fitfully about the house. After a long and loud knocking on their part, the door was suddenly opened to them by a man whom they had never seen before. He told them that he had just left the curé in the study, and that the object of his visit had been to get a piece of information (un renseignement). The stranger then disappeared, while the ladies hurried into the cure's room. They found him sitting in his arm-chair quite dead, his skull cleft open, and the neighbouring books and furniture bespattered with his brains and blood. Various lockfast places in the house showed traces of violence, which had been unsuccessfully applied to force them open.

Jean Dupuy is arrested on the charge of being the murderer. The two ladies at once identify him as the stranger who had opened to them the door of the parsonage on the evening of the twentyfourth. In his possession is found a hatchet with some clotted blood and hair yet sticking to the blade. He is accordingly put on his trial at the assizes held for the Department of the Ariége.

The acte d'accusation, which, as usual in France, was a written speech on the evidence obtained in precognition, stated, that about a month before the crime, the accused had said in conversation: “I think that pig of a curé of Brassac must have a great deal of money by him; if I could lay my hands on it, I would have great pleasure in scattering it for him."

In a case like this, where the evidence was overwhelming, and where the accused had confessed his guilt, the only possible defence was insanity. Accordingly, at the trial, the counsel for the accused

VOL. I.-NO. XI. NOVEMBER 1857.

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