One of the worst of newspaper stunts," based upon complete
ignorance of the law, has occupied the attentiaa of the public during the week. We mean the organized attack upon the Home Secretary because he reprieved the murderer True, who was admittedly guilty of a particularly 'brutal crime. Mr. Shortt had no difficulty in answering his critics in 'the House of Commons on Tuesday. He explained that a Home Secretary, when doubts about the sanity of a condemned man have been brought to his notice, is bound to intervene and institute a medical inquiry. It is not merely that he may do so ; he must do so. After True -had been condemned, the judge explicitly called the attention of the Home Secretary to the doubts about True's sanity. Therefore the Home Secretary was compelled to act as he .did. For about three hundred years it has been regarded as against the law to hang a lunatic.
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