Mr. Justice Branson, addressing the Grand Jury at Chester, told
the heart-rending story of a father who was indicted at the Assizes for the murder of his child. The father was evidently an unselfish and affectionate man who had been driven to distraction by the spectacle of his child's sufferings. He had been out of work, and had been nursing the child day after day and night after night. " It gives food for thought," said the judge, " when one considers that, had this poor child been an animal instead of a human being, so far from there being anything blameworthy in the man's action in putting an end to its sufferings, he would actually have been liable to punishment if he had not done it." Everyone will agree with the verdict of " Not Guilty " returned by the jury ; but, on the whole, it would have been better if questions of the right to kill and euthanasia had not been raised by the kind-hearted judge in such a form that there is a temptation to plead a precedent for justified murder. A direction to the jury that the man was mentally deranged at the moment of his act would have been enough to secure for the prisoner the merciful treatment which he deserved.
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