Mrs. Weldon has not been well advised in bringing an
action for trespass and for libel against Dr. Forbes Winslow, and Baron Huddleston non-suited her on Tuesday, on the ground that there was no trespass,—the house entered by Dr. Forbes Winslow being the house of Captain Weldon, who had authorised his entrance,—and also that there was no libel, one of the com- munications asserted to be libellous being privileged, and the other being a reply to the challenge of Mrs. Weldon herself. Baron Haddleston, however, remarked most justly on the "astonishing and shocking fact that with an order and a statement signed by paupers, and two certificates signed by men whose only qualifi- cation need be the possession of diplomas and the fact that they were not related to the keeper of the asylum to which a patient was to be sent, anybody might be shut up in a private asylum." This was what Mr. Dillwyn's Bill a year or two ago tried to prevent, but Parliament has no time now-a-days to prevent gross injustice, being too keenly employed in obstructing Government in all its tasks, both administrative and legislative. Mrs. Weldon conducted her own cross- examinations with great though irregular ability, and made Dr. Forbes Winslow look extremely foolish time after time ; for instance, when he declared his belief that Swedenborg was mad, and then declined to express the same belief concerning Wesley, -on the ground that be had not examined him ; whereupon Mrs. Weldon retorted at once, "Oh, then, of course you did examine Swedenborg P" A lawyer has remarked of her that she would make a capital leader at the Bar, if she had but a junior with enough legal knowledge to tell her what questions not to put. Andso she would, if she were at all inclined to accept her junior's suggestions. But of course she would ignore them. She has ability enough for anything, but not self-restraint enough for even the smallest undertakings.
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