The Express.
London, England, 1862-12-10 00:00:00

HIGH WAY= AT MOON BBIDGE.,

Tim DAY—iordii.4lZls4Ti.::::Aikrrr.z.4b. $O4O.
Tayougor—Morning, 40. 60g0.....Aitseaso0. 60.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10.

Tim Ministerial interregnum at Turin is at length
st an end. Signor FARO; who is called to the
post of President of the Council, served Italy with
his pen until the war of 1859, and during the inter-
val between the pacification of Villafranca and the
annexation of the 'Ernilian provinces, rendered ger-
vim, to his country which will not soon be forgotten.
He was for a time Minister of the Interior under
Count CAVOUR. As a native of the Roman
States, the history of which he has written in an
enduring work, it may be presumed that be will
not be outdone in devotion to the great tank on
which Italy has set her mind. Signor Pasouxi,
who takes the department of Foreign Affairs,
has hitherto been known only in administrative
offices, where, however, he has won general con-
fidence. Generals Della ROVERS and MENABREA,
and Signor Pinuzzi, Ministers respectively of the
Interior, of War, and of Public Works, were col-
leagues with Baron Ricesou. Signor MiNonErn,
the new Minister of Finance, has a high reputa-
tion for ability, and was much trusted by Count
Camera. On the whole the composition of the
new Cabinet is one to inspire hope. It is, how-
ever, by the policy of the administration as a body,
and not by the character of its individual members,
that it must be judged. It would be easy to enu-
merate the immense difficulties with which the
new Government will have to contend, and to sug-
gest courses which they may possibly take ; but
to-morrow they will be in their place in Parlia-
ment and speak for themselves.

Witesv a novelist puts into a lunatic asylum a
perfectly sane victim of • family conspiracy, the
matter-of-fact reader exclaims against the gross
improbability of such an occurrence, and sets it
down as the extravagance of fiction in search of
startling effects. Yet any tolerably attentive ob-
server of the proceedings in the Law Courts knows
only too well that the secret of the art of fiction is
not only the insight into the possibilities of human
nature, but the grasp of the realities amidst which
men live, but which familiarity obscures from ordi-
nary eyes. It is the unsuspected truth of improbable
scenes and exceptional incidents thatmoves the mass
of careless and indifferent readers, and makes the
vast European public interested in the Woman in
White and No Nome. The case of Hsu. v. SEMI.;
which has occupied the Court of Queen's
Bench for five days, is one of those
which, presented in the form of fiction, would be
deemed beyond the bounds of rational invention.
We dare say Mr. WILKIE CoLuss has been ac-
cused of exceeding the license of imagination for
inventing scenes and characters of which only the
strangeness concealed the reality. It was only the
other day that we were pulling a beam out of our
neighbour's judicial eye for torturing an innocent
woman into the confession of an act of parricide
she had not committed. It is now our duty to
take at least a considerable mote out of our own.
Tho case we are considering is extremely simple
if we discharge it of a load of uselesa evi-
dence. The action was against a medical man for
illegally causing the plaintiff to be confined in
lunatic asylum. Another count was for " falsely
" and maliciously, and without reasonable and pro-
" bable cause," giving a certificate of insanity ; but
in the minds of the jury the action resolved itself
into one for "negligence in giving a certiticate of
" insanity without taking due and proper care, and
" making due and proper inquiries." On this count
the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff for
150/. They acquitted the defendant of
malice, and found him guilty of negligence in
giving a certificate of lunacy without due in-
quiry ; so that he was not protected by the Act
of Parliament, under which he had acted bond
- but without proper precaution. No one,
we apprehend, who reads the evidence can well be
in doubt of the correctness of the verdict. If it
errs it is not on the side of severity. For what
were the facts ? The plaintiff had led for years •
life of extreme " incompatibility " with a most un-
comfortable partner of his bed and board. There
was abundance of bad language and aggravation on
both sides ; more than enough to solicit the
interference of Sir C. CRISISWELL, but nothing
that in the Divorce Court would be pronounced ab-