CONTROL OF DANGEROUS LUNATICS.
" Cowmermy outrage on her Majesty !" shouted divers j °amen( in largest capitals away with mawkish sentimentalism! echoed the Lynch-inspired editors; • "let us hope that the ruffian was not mad—mob, drown, flog, or kill him at once." What business have such, fellows to be mad P "The dog, to gain his private ends,
Went mad, and bit the man";
Why not,. indeed ? There is ',method in every man's madness, which makes him quite competent to judge of whet he is about; and there is no question that some men, conscious of insanity, reckon upon it • as an excuse that is to confer immunity. Hamlet seems to have had ;mime such idea in his mind. But still there are men so„ insane as • to be really irre- sponsible beings. Because the .dog of Islington and the Prince of Denmark went mad of malice prepense, non constat that Robert Pate had the same_ luminous conception of means to an end. Between semi-responsible and wholly irresponsible insanity it is very difficult to draw the line.; and,: without pretending to fix the precise location of the prisoner in either category, we must be prepared to admit the possibility of abeolute insanity': we should not therefore hurry to the eonclusion that Robert Pate's madness is only a feint, nor clamour, with a. slight parenthetical condition, for his corporal castigation. But if he is redly mad,--which in- deed seems probahle,-Alien,Itig-aSsault was not a "cowardly out- ' rage," nor is he a " ruffian ".: .he is only A:patient, and his assault Is as little " cowardly " .or " outrageous?' to the Queen as to him- self, who struggles in it delirium. It does not follow that *cause we admit the • possibility of madness, we admit the impossibility of guarding against such at- tacks. On the contrary, in every case•of legal provision, it is ne- cessary to acquire a.elear Concieption of the fads in circler to make flt and suitable provision ; and if we ignore the mad category, we simply blind "ourselves to one side of the danger, or the remedy thereof. We deliberately choose the position of the stagblind on one side, who fed with his ;single 'eye to the land, and neglect the business of guarding against the approach a danger by boat. The object of all 'correctional discipline:. is to supply the defec- tive mind which errs into crime with the _motive to keep straight on in the sight path. The .sp.foty of society is Vie .paramount object; insomuch that if it is fteedfii_ to destrey dangerous creature for the security of society, consoience Warrants 'the destrnetion. But in many eases it Seems' probable that yen may' attain the desired object as well, or better, without the 'destruction ; and then the destruction becomes cruelty. Capital pUnishment is not the only deterrent from erime among the sane. • Danger' of some kind may be a very fortible- motive with the rude and the semi-insane; but there are Minds So: diseased that no danger can be conceived by them": you Will find madnien Walk on to h sword's point, cut off their own limbs,- set- fire to their . own 'beds; ad even invite the hangman: of course the fear of pertienal danger might to Bitch be e bait rather than . a terror. But still, the object of finding a check upon this class' of criminals—to Use the word in its popular and not strictly acCurate sense--is iiot hopeless. You cannot Supply it directly, but by a scrutiny into the facts you learn -what 48 the point it 'Which to apply it. It happens so rarely as rtot to be worth counting; that a man is seized with mur- derous or dangerous mania suddenly and if Robert Pate is mad, many traits addueed to prove the insanity will prove that Others had recognized symptoms of the malady before. * Yet they per- mitted a man capable of committing' such dangerous ate to go it large ! './/rere is a social wrong: a man incapable of being his own policeman is Wandering about anieng society, and those who knew of his' dangerous or hazardous condition take no steps to protect society by restraining him. Ti) this point should the artificial motive of the law he applied : the nearest relatives, or any other person in the habit of disc personal intercourse with a man sus- pected, Should be made responsible for neglect of this kind, and puni4lied: We -should include in our code, as a distinct offence, misprision of ditrigeronshinaey. It may be said that there is no sufficient power at law by which a relative can restrain an adult lunatic, unless that lunatic has property, or has committed some overt act; and that there is no actessible or authorized means for testing supposed lunacy. But here also a distinct recognition of the want suggests its remedy: there ought to be a tribunal capable of receiving a notification, of examining the alleged lunatic, and of determining whether his condition requires restraint or not. In the case of what we may call acquittal, there need be no inquiry beyond the earlier one, which might be strictly, private ; in the case of a decision adverse to the liberty of the lunatic, a second inquiry of a public kind must be his security against oppression. The state ought to bear the cost of maintaining those whom it detains for the advantage of society; but the detention should be so managed as to mitigate rather than aggravate the hardship inherent in the case of the lunatic; and liberty should be reserved for friends and relatives to minister to the consolation of the detenu.
A tribunal of the kind desiderated already exists in the Lunacy Commission; but it might be improved by associating with a Lunacy Commissioner the nearest Police Magistrate, on a private hearing; and some competent judicial lawyer with a jury, on a public hearing.
Instead of raising a clamour to stretch the law so as to include madmen in its retributive mope, it would be better to raise a cry to improve the law so as to make the motives of prevention bear on the proper quarter --the friends and relatives, or after them any person cognizant of insanity. We should then have an ef- fective law to protect the prominent post of royalty, and society at large, from the aSsault not only of idle criminals but also of idiots and lunatics.
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