medical practitioners to visit and examine them, and to certify as to their mental condition; and the justices may in a proper case, and on the certificates of such medical practitioners, cause the lunatic to be confined either in a pauper asylum or in a hospital or licensed house, unless the person in charge of the lunatic satisfies the justice that he will take proper care of him. And in such cases, the medical certificates must now be attached to the reception order (o).

The earlier Acts also provided for the admission into the lunatic asylum of any county or borough, of the pauper lunatics of any other county or borough, or even of lunatics who were not paupers (p); but as regards lunatics who were not paupers, the visitors might prescribe, as a condition of their admission, that the person applying for the admission should give an undertaking to pay for the lodging, maintenance, and other necessaries to be provided for the lunatic in the asylum. These provisions are maintained in the Lunacy Act, 1890 (7). Under that Act, however, and therefore under the existing law, every justice is not a "judicial authority." The powers of a "judicial authority" under the Lunacy Act may be exercised either by one of the justices specially appointed at the Michaelmas quarter sessions in counties, and at a special sessions held in boroughs in October, or by a county court judge, or by a stipendiary or police magistrate. A justice who is a judicial authority under the Lunacy Acts may act without having jurisdiction in the place where the alleged lunatic is (54 & 55 Vict. c. 65), s. 24.

The maintenance of every pauper lunatic is of course chargeable to the poor rate, being the poor rate of the parish or union from which he is sent, or to which he belongs (r). If the pauper's settlement cannot be ascer

(0) Act of 1891, s. 5.

(p) Act of 1853, s. 43.

(q) Act of 1890, ss. 269-271.

(r) Sects. 286--298.

tained, two justices may, under certain circumstances, adjudge him to be chargeable to the "local authority," i.e., the council of a county or borough (s). By the Local Government Act, 1888 (t), the administrative county councils established under that Act are required to provide in whole or in part for all pauper lunatics, according to their chargeability, either from the Exchequer Contribution Account spoken of in a former chapter (u), or both from that and also from the general rates for the administrative county. But, under the Lunacy Act, 1890, any property of the lunatic, if more than sufficient for the maintenance of his family, may, by order of a justice (s. 299), or of a county court judge (s. 300), be made available to recoup the expenses of his maintenance.

Stringent provision is made, by the Lunacy Act, 1890, against the wrongful detention of persons as lunatics, it being provided by the Act that no person (other than a criminal lunatic, or a pauper lunatic, or a lunatic wandering at large, or a lunatic so found by inquisition) shall, excepting in cases of urgency, be received or detained as a lunatic in any asylum, hospital, or licensed house, or as a single patient, unless under the reception order of a county court judge or magistrate or justice of the peace (~). A reception order is to be obtained on private application by petition, accompanied by a statement of particulars, and two medical certificates under the hands of two medical practitioners (s. 4). The judge, magistrate, or justice may himself visit the alleged lunatic to satisfy himself as to the lunacy (s. 6). And the reception order, with the medical certificates attached, is a sufficient authority for the petitioner (within seven clear days from its date)

(8) Act of 1890, ss. 240, 290. (t) 51 & 52 Vict. c. 41, ss. 3, 24 (2) (e) and (6), 32, 36, 38, and 86. (u) Supra, p. 39.

(x) Being, as above mentioned,

a "judicial authority" under the Act, .e., one of the committee appointed for this purpose by the justices of the county or quarter sessions borough. (Sect. 10.)

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to take the lunatic to the place mentioned in the order for his reception and detention (s. 36). In cases of urgency, the lunatic may be received and detained under an urgency order" made at the request of the husband, wife, or other near relative of the lunatic, the request being accompanied with a medical certificate under the hand of a medical practitioner, who has personally examined the lunatic within two days before signing such certificate (s. 11). But the Act gives the lunatic the right of appealing in certain cases against the order for his reception or detention (s. 8), such appeal being to another "judicial authority." The Act contains also minute provisions for the protection of persons from being wrongfully confined as lunatics by their relatives; and, with a view to ascertaining whether or not the detention. of persons as lunatics is in the first instance lawful, the Act specially provides, that within one month after the reception of a lunatic the medical superintendent, medical proprietor, or medical attendant, as the case may be, who has charge of him, shall report as to his mental and bodily condition to the Commissioners in Lunacy (s. 39). Thereupon those Commissioners (or one or more of them) are to visit the lunatic; and the Visitors in Lunacy are also to visit him if he is detained as a private patient in a licensed house within their district (s. 39). And, according to the true state of the alleged lunatic, he may be either discharged from or continued in detention. (s. 39). The Act also provides, that reception orders shall in general continue good for one year only, but may (where necessary) be continued for two years, and again for three years, and again for five years; after which they may be continued for successive periods of five years (s. 38). These orders are now continued, and successively continued, for the periods aforesaid automatically, that is to say, merely upon the medical officer or medical attendant, who has the lunatic in his charge, specially

reporting to the Commissioners from time to time, as prescribed, that the lunacy still continues (y); but the Commissioners may, at any period of the detention of the lunatic, visit him, and, if he is detained without sufficient cause, they may order his discharge (s. 38). Also, any one, whether a relative or not of the alleged lunatic, may obtain an order from the Commissioners for the examination of the lunatic by two medical practitioners authorized by the Commissioners; and on the certificate of such practitioners, the Commissioners may in a proper case order the discharge of the alleged lunatic (s. 49). Any alleged lunatic (being a pauper lunatic) may, in a proper case, and upon an order of the committee of visitors, be delivered over to relatives or friends willing to take care of him (s. 57); and these latter may in such case receive an allowance from the Poor Law authority towards the cost of his maintenance. The Act also provides, that lunatics detained by persons receiving no payment therefor, or deriving no profit therefrom, or lunatics who are detained in charitable or other like institutions (not being asylums, hospitals, or licensed houses), may be discharged or removed to an asylum, hospital, or licensed house, by order of the Lord Chancellor, upon a report as to their condition transmitted to him by the Commissioners (s. 206). And there are also many other provisions contained in the Act which have for their object the comfort and humane treatment of lunatics during the period of their detention (), including the proper management of asylums, hospitals, and licensed houses, and their enlargement when necessary. In case a lunatic who is lawfully detained escapes, he may be retaken in England,

(y) Act of 1891, s. 7.

(z) Female (and not male) attendants are to have the personal charge of female lunatics (sect. 53), unless in cases of urgency; and having carnal intercourse with any

such lunatic, whether she consent or not, is an offence punishable with imprisonment, for two years, with or without hard labour. (Sect. 324.)

Scotland, or Ireland, on the warrant of a justice of the peace, to be obtained by any person in that behalf authorized by the Commissioners (ss. 85-89).

II. Criminal Lunatics.-A criminal lunatic may be defined as a person who is found to have committed a crime while "labouring under such a defect of reason, "from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing; or if he did know it "that he did not know he was doing what was wrong" (a). The Criminal Lunatics Act, 1884 (47 & 48 Vict. c. 64), which repeals and consolidates (with amendments) the earlier general Acts upon the subject (b), provides, that where it appears to any two members of the visiting committee of a prison that a prisoner in such prison (not being under sentence of death) is insane, they shall call to their assistance two legally qualified medical practitioners, to examine the prisoner and inquire as to his insanity; and after such examination and inquiry, they may certify in writing that the prisoner is insane. As regards any prisoner who is under sentence of death, if it appears to the Secretary of State, either by means of a certificate signed by two members of the visiting committee of the prison in which such prisoner is confined, or by any other means, that there is reason to believe such prisoner to be insane, the Secretary of State is to appoint two or more legally qualified medical practitioners to examine the prisoner and inquire as to his insanity. Upon a certificate of insanity being given, in either case, the Secretary of State may, if he thinks fit, issue his warrant for the removal of such prisoner to the asylum named in the warrant, and the prisoner is to be received into such asylum accordingly; and, subject to the provisions of the Act relating to his conditional discharge and otherwise,

(a) M'Naghten's Case, (1843), 10 Cl. & Fin. 200. Cf. Act of 1884, ss. 2, 16.

(b) The Criminal Lunatics Acts, 1840 to 1869 (3 & 4 Vict. c. 54; 27 & 28 Vict. c. 29; 30 & 31 Vict. c. 12; and 32 & 33 Vict. c. 78).