Sir George Grey brought in on Monday night a bill
to amend the law 3 and 4 Victoria, cap. 54, which has led, or which under his administration of it has led, to so ridiculous a result in the case of George Victor. Townley. Sir G. Grey proposes only to require that the certificate of lunacy should be given in future by the visiting justices to a prison (where there are any) instead of any two justices, that the medical certificates should be given by two medical gentlemen (with a regular diploma), selected by the visiting justices, and that then discretion should be formally left with the Home Secretary whether he should or should not act upon the certificates so given. The amendment seems to us utterly inadequate. What the public want, when a man escapes through alleged lunacy the punishment due to his crime, is a public verdict of lunacy given by a jury after a regular judicial inquiry, the evidence being taken on oath,—and not to trust any further to the discretion even of Sir George Grey.
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