The Express.
London, England, 1858-12-27 00:00:00

INSANIII OP CRIMINALS.

(From the Baliorder Review.)

- - -
A murder ones just tried at the York Assize,
which ended in the acquittal of the accused, one Atkinson,
deserves some lavastigation,not because it is an extreme or ex-
aggerated instance of the lengths to which medical testimony
is disposed to go to support the pies of insanity, but because
It contains a good summary of the arguments gene-
rally used on such wantons. This trial baguet only brought
together all that is usually urged by the experts in Insanity,
but it shows the broad general bias of the mad demon, as
they are called. We are ready to admit that, taken in tbslr
accumulated weight, there was much in the arguments urged
for the defence of insanity set up for Atkinson. The single
links were weak enough, but they had a formidable cohe-
rence. The distinct proof of hereditary insanity, the phy-
sical constitution of the criminal, the promos of symponts
indicative of cretinism, the ungoverned—we will not hap
ungovernable—passione of the murderer, his defective fate
ggeennea,, end, above all, the reluctance to hang • man in the
famed doubt and perplexity—all these things account for,
and justify, or at least go far to extenuate, the verdict. It
was perhaps unavoidable • and we shall not so muck esavens
the case as reflect upon some of the principles laid down by
the medical witnesses. Yet it would be unfair to deny that
on almost every point, except the proof of hereditary in-
sanity, there was an actual °pallid of evidence ; and even
the strong argument based upon the ground of hereditary
taint was modified by the equally strong presumption of
actual amity to be derived from Atldnson's =outs sad lull
canieseka. If one witness proved great defects in aritheasti-
cal program, another, and • echoolusester, swore to the pri-
soner's skill in proportion; and It must be admitted that It a
person ever worked a sum in the rule of three, the evidence
that he area not able to tell what two and two make must
go for nothing. The father's assertion of his son's imbe-
cility, to say nothing of his natural idea under such circum-
stances, was absolutely annihilated by his admision that hs
had lamed the alleged idiot an executor to his will. Doctor
confronted doctor, and leech contradicted leech, as com-
pletely u schoolmaster was at imps with schoolmaster on tho
question of Atkineon's intellectual porno ; yet It could only
have been by a hazardous experiment on the discriminating
powers of • jury that the incident of a boy ofeiggit
years old having been childishly enraged at not getit
his dinner, was produced by way of proof of • men's
Insanity at twenty-four. l'ior, la 41•11•21.0111, IMO
the special Instances of imbecility at all ooneduadve.
A vast many rude hinds, elsewhere than in the
wilder parts of Yorkshire. can only give very incoherent se-
counts of laud, and even Dr. Winslow admitted that his own
views of the locality of ball were as vwne as those of the
prisoner. Remembering that grave philectophers have bald
that the seat of the ;foul is in the Tinsel gland, pr-
imps we might sympathies with Atkinsca's Pyrtlacmio
frame of mind whoa be palmed • lurking doubt
whether • man thought with his heart; and se Leasoalos
Gobbo makes the hale capable of ratiocination spirt
from the suasive powers of the conscience, we may fairly say
that Atkinsosis inability to decide whcther a man could
think with his legs cut off is not conclusive of his incapacity
to know that he was doing wrong when cutting his par-
amour's throat. Nor do we think that aufficiest weight was
attached to the circumstance that the girl Scalds, in spite of
all, this alleged idiocy, not only kept up the most intimate
relations with her murderer for years, but was perfectly
ready, and with her father's sagisat, to become the wit% es
she had been long the mistress, of this fatuous and sites
frenzied driveller.

But we are epee/trued with the principled, laid down by the
sasses, and they are such that, if they are to be leeway se-
oepted, it will be almost impossible to convict a murderer.
One witness, not without Baron Watson's protest, laid ft
down broadly that " the commission of murder was of itself
evidence of an unsound elate of mind." Such a witness, we
think, o tto have been ordered out of court ; for after such
an of his aatredent prejudice, his metheonymest
be utterly worthless. Another witness, Mr. Hitching, ad-
mitted that, in his endeavour to get Dove acquitted, he " had
propounded the opinion, that if a men nourished an idea until
it gained such poorest= of his mind as to injure
his health and produce a morbid change in hie
brain, it then might become en uncontrollable condition
of mind, impelling him to carry out the idea, end
that he then would not be reeponaible." Dr. Forbes
Winslow has "made it a rule to refuse to go into a resump-
tive to prove a premier's malty on a charge of murder." It
is quite plain that if these principled go for anything—and
they were urged by separate witnesses—they go, very far
towards invalidating the whole lire of defence, even in At-
kinson's ore. That defence was cumulative; and if each
' portion of the testimony VS OA the result of prejudice of this
sort the moor force of the aggregate vanishes. The whole is
made up of is parte, and it these can be separately dimmed
at the general fabric falls. If one expert holds that a men
most be mad because he is a murderer, and another that no
man is responsible for him actions if he dwells upon a guilty
purpose till it disorders hie brain, and a third admits that he
only gives his evidence as an advocate, there is an
end of the necessity of judicial proof. The faces
and details of evidence are, in that ore, mare Nor-
, plumage. We have already said that the cirmonelemer
alleged is proof of Atkinson's idiocy, urn separately, ware
inooselneiee, and were ceeteser by eounter-evkicsee ; but
they are absolutely gumtree in the face of major pro-
urea of this sort. Murder may, of course, by wiped out of
the err of attar If every murderer is ipso farto insane; yet
so late thaa a position ot this moguarous nature fat mottreard
in Mr. Hitching's "abstract proposition," as the reporter
calls it. Crime I. impossible on this doctrine of "nourish-
ing an idea." If this is tette et murder. it is true of every
so-called crime. If we are notresponsible when we murder
a man, simply brave we have long cherished the idea of
killing him, neither are we to be punished as thieved because
we have long bed a hankering attar oar neighbour's purse.
In point of fact, there is no such thing r responsibility after
the stage of coveter ems been gee through. Ws should
like to ask Mr. Hitching whether he holds that the
tenth remandment has any force, or, if it
has, whether the responsibility which it implies
ogres when applied to the mirth, seventh, and
eighth ? People generally believe that, as regrets the moral
law, both the overt act and the preliminary stage of guilty
thoughts are matters at leer of Christian responsibility. Bat
Mr. /itching is very plainly disposed not only to clear away
the thorny doubts which moralists have planted about the.
path of duty, bat to make a criminal judges °Moe a 'inmate.
Human law cannot punish the thoughts--no wart can deal
with inchoate intentions—we cannot punish a man for noe-
-1 rishing an idea. There is no stage in the growth of rumen-
trolleble conditions of mind in which a policeman or a maple-
, hate is to interfere : and when the uncontrollable condition
has got hold of the patient—for there is no place for criminal,
word or thing, to tale ray-going new moral world—it is too
late for law sod justice to act. The man is now no longer
responsible—he has passed out of the kingdom of
humanity, Its facetious and its prohibitions. Crime
is at an end—there I. no each thing. Nor does
Mr. Hitching stand alone. His formula IFS/ nmeeted
short word for word by Dr. Curb Williams, who, like
Mr. Hitching, gave Fiedler evidence on Dove's mild, to the
effect that " if a man nourished any passion sill it reams
umoutrollabla, that was moral insanity,' and therefor he
was not culpable. W e must say that this view, if it gains
I ground r it seems to be,dores, will rave the Law Amendment
gooier a world of trouble, and will very meek simplify our
ortreinsljurimpradence es well as our moral philosophy.
Dr.Forbse Winslow Is untrestfon.bly a very eminent per-
son; but ware almost chromed to agree with the fork
Yorkshire surgeon's diotra—" Such gentlemen, from de-
teeing ibeesselves exclusively to one subject, were liable to be
• Ildie erroher." At any rams, we must say that the
" rule" upon which he acts, never to give riders to
prove • prisoner's sanity on • charge of murder," Is loom-
erten t with kis duties ea a derma. We ranee doubt who-
' ther such a man as Dr. Window or be prepand to say
that • sane murderer is impossible, as me of the readier
witnesses bravely did on this very trlaL If he will not
go this length, we war tested hime that It is his
duty to speak the bulk and moiety bus • 'lett to the
aereites of men of edam sod odueses. If ft is
Dr. Wisoloeee duty to redoes hie tramway In cease
of murder, it is everybody etas deity to deolleo: to wove
a murderies amity. In other wards, It is Lea r• 1
is be a whams 011 a trW ibr monde; and, If K h uses at to
be • utters, ft nest be Mere ebb trial twit lelbolierel.
Is still plainer words. wiendsr Is swedes% owl the eselmotere
• mockery. It is at least emoubbui le boy bleu* Yds
out se the ultimate meat of undid sAinlia an bra*.

Tharananto Occultazaca.—al Friday Mt
W. 8. Ratter held es Swim at Drokka, rot )Mete,
es the boats of two MB, sawed Chirp owl Theme lbw/
brothors, vie bad boo adbootal by de/9ft sp a
:ii•:owt tweet sausths ap limo r 11.2 a•
from to Nasa W ial IFINE, Nig seas
to sms by Lb ,w,_trlts was a wdows,. Abaft a .
dare the welt of Theme mertead ha Nowstoratar
with obadtiet sod SW sa lad la a bar tr ' )
Orovo-low, Millar-ottoot, Oa hot die amid •i
the boar eallsd Ow Sates mem of row, abash swan
sot be pail Is fail, It • spwwwate of Ss wit .2
Wrist bus Old Ili wwk kir a abort Mom • and "' I
:14.181 41. cl=gratia moss, ts the MOS
bad day limb met. Me moat OW away
iesa 'await* a WOW Aiwa to bast"
M eserbd way the wry sawn
rd fish
ro itta
worldsg that N. whets wadi sat fish is.
Thomas was law Ist Whim, aid the tit i.
Wesel tow oat lay Ohs ordered the abider weir ,a
at drin, sal tbe dow. Thu swam ..
CllMmamptspitiss • wool .fi
fth sass tea sad bee* Ms N. ' '
WNW took op Owe sad taws thous fate the sows. what ,ti
the ma retissed Dom their work they &mod or
' =ad Moe Orre to several piers airy= ,
ima Wo vilo awl se& asszregua...ol, "41
le imkr ts aleillits. . a•
asiii"ba, ram% le do lasi so a boa birlia
(Sabre, outside the fret of Yates Ishaws, whops
they west to sleep. They kid dews at that port et the beep
Dom whir it was Warm sad sent swan both was
*wad quite deed, Irwin boas satbotted by fobs tssi this yas.
no mast wee "•esiasial dash.'

LID-HAND PIANOTORTII,
ell:.110= ...I=iliamireaMt

ti 1 DAILY NEWS: LONDON MORNING
P• Dor momplii Y. aims/ et
lavas Loki kung, Oa skulk d km Nemosa, sal d
Worm
k Sr MOM Ma Yak, el Ns seriel ass-la Os of ft
Imr mirk nod k bby mist mokaills sod Wherilles
yereird by In My. Whim and nyeekk post is wh.
16VOIZIGIF NSW/ 111 MILIARIA lAD TUPAIMILL
La -mods
tad? dtaEt d kg
tb kb Wks /it b skyllei
" be "NtarlinZr ITME• axons.
itgets.... taw= ADVIIVEXCILaw
=l7.llll7=riardrul=wilistratliZ
WNW by .
th.lbilia. ame belkatTairma la Ss theban; yy al
*
our st a jiwisii. ge lasting = Oats
arm at soc==ts mob la a* tab at, pm swim kid k
skean by