The Townley case does not improve. Sir George Grey has
received replies from the magistrates who signed the certificate. They all admit that they were "put in motion" by Townley's own solicitor. Three of them at least had prejudged the case, and the fourth, Mr. Scott, who is stated by a brother magistrate to have had a strong prejudice against Townley, and to have dis- believed in his madness, does not, in his own letter, make any assertion of the kind, but does say rather pointedly that he had no idea at all he was doing anything to decide the case, believing that he was only giving an individual conviction of 'Townley's insanity, and being quite "unaware of its effect" as regarded the (sup- posed) obligation on Sir George Grey. None of the magistrates offer the slightest reasons for their belief in Townley's insanity.
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