Mrs. Weldon has at least done a public service in
prosecuting to a successful issue her action against Dr. Forbes Winslow for attempting improperly to confine her in an asylum. The Jury found for the plaintiff last Saturday, after four days' trial, on the ground that "the defendant allowed himself to be un- duly influenced by other motives than the interests of jnstice," and gave Mrs. Weldon £500 damages. Lord Justice Bowen, in the judgment which directed a new trial, had suggested that the true question for the consideration of the Jury was this : ' Whether the defendant was acting as an honest man in the strict sense of the term, simply bringing to bear good-faith and sincere purpose, or whether he allowed his mind to be warped and influenced by some idea of advantage to himself, or whether he was actuated by any other motive than that of simply doing his best for the lady and the public.' Mr. Justice Denman put this as the real issue before the Jury, and the Jury answered the second ques- tion in the affirmative. It is clear from the trial that the present system of obtaining certificates for the reception of patients into private asylums is a thoroughly bad one, and that some reform, of the nature of that proposed a year or two ago by Mr. Dillwyn,—the drift of which was to get rid of private asylums and to entrust the insane to public officers, who gain nothing but trouble by an increase in the number of their patients, and lose nothing but trouble by its diminution,—is urgently needed in this country.
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