< Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 5.djvu
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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In another part of them it is said, in reference to the same supposed case, that "notwithstanding the party accused did the act complained of with a view, under the influence of insane delusion, of redressing or revenging some supposed grievance or injury, or of producing some public benefit, he is nevertheless punishable, if he knew at the time of committing such crime that he was acting contrary to the law, by which is meant the law of the land." This answer really conflicts with a former answer; it is obvious that the knowledge of right and wrong is different from the knowledge of an act being contrary to the law of the land; and it is certain that an insane person may do an act which he knows to be contrary to law, because, by reason of his insanity, he believes it to be right, because, under the influence of insane delusion, he is a law unto himself, and deems it a duty to do it, perhaps "with a view of producing some public benefit."

The uprightness of English judges has happily been seldom called in question, but it may well be doubted whether the result of their solemn deliberations, as embodied in their answers to the questions put to them by the House of Lords, will commend their wisdom to the approbation of foreign nations and future ages. If it be true, as is sometimes said, that the verdict of foreign nations is an anticipation of the verdict of posterity, there are already sufficiently strong indications that their conclusions will be no honor to them in times to come. That they are unanimously condemned by all physicians who have a practical knowledge of the insane, may not affect the confidence of those who accept them, seeing that judges and physicians take such different stand-points; but when the judges of other countries condemn them with equal earnestness, it is impossible for the most confident to help feeling some hesitation. In the case of State v. Jones, tried in the court of New Hampshire, America, Judge Ladd, after passing in review the answers of the English judges, thus speaks of the doctrine embodied in them:

"The doctrine thus promulgated as law has found its way into the text-hooks, and has doubtless been largely received as the enunciation of a sound legal principle since that day. Yet it is probable that no ingenious student of the law ever read it for the first time without being shocked by its exquisite inhumanity. It practically holds a man, confessed to be insane, accountable for the exercise of the same reason, judgment, and controlling mental power, that are required in perfect mental health. It is, in effect, saying to the jury, the prisoner was mad when he committed the act, but he did not use sufficient reason in his madness. He killed a man because, under an insane delusion, he falsely believed the man had done him a great wrong, which was giving rein to a motive of revenge, and the act is murder. If he had killed a man only because, under an insane delusion, he falsely believed the man would kill him if he did not do so, that would have been giving the rein to an instinct of self-preservation, and would not be crime. It is true in words the judges attempt to guard against a consequence so shocking as that a man may be punished for an act which is purely the offspring and product of insanity, by introducing the quali-
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