ASYLUM REFORM.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
&a—As regards the composition of the proposed Royal Commission which is, we hope, shortly to be appointed to inquire into defects in lunacy law and administration, it is not in accord with the principles of natural justice that any interested party should sit in judgment upon his own cause. A magistrate leaves the bench when any question is brought up for decision involving a matter in which he is himself concerned. It is therefore incongruous that anyone connected with the lunacy system—the very system whose defects are the subject of investigation—should be entitled to sit in judgment on the Commission. It is hoped that the Government may invite a Judge of the High Court to act as President ; and it would be desirable that medical opinion and evidence, where required, should be given before the Commission from the witness-box and tested by cross- examination.
There is much uneasiness at the moment among the medical profession in regard to the risk of liability for signing certifi- cates ; but this aspect of the question did not arise in the recent Harnett case. The anxiety, moreover, is groundless, for it has been ruled in the Appeal Court that a certifying doctor incurs no liability, for the reason that his certificate is not regarded as the cause of imprisonment, but is a mere tendering of evidence by a witness. It is the magistrate's Reception Order which is the legal instrument of detention in an asylum. For the purpose of arriving at a true judgment, the magistrate ought to be in a position to hear both sides of the case. The doctor's evidence, which is the sworn testi- mony of a witness, ought therefore to be given before the magistrate from the witness-box, and be tested fairly, as is the custom in all just legal procedure through cross-examina- tion by the solicitor or friend of the accused party, or by the
individual himself, if he can prove himself capable of answering or refuting the charges. Such a procedure would afford an immense safeguard for any sane person unjustly alleged to
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