The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-02 00:00:00

The Prince and Princess of Wales.

As Parliament is now to meet, and Townley's case will
be brought before the House of Commons, it is as well in
order to promote the great ends of justice, to summarise
the chief points.
Ist. As to the contention that the 3 and 4 Vic., cap. 54,
did not render it obligatory upon the Home Secretary to
arrest the course of justice, but giving him a discretion-
ary power to do so, if it should prove, upon his looking into
the facts and circumstances to be reasonable and expedient.
21. As to the contention that the certificate on which the
warrant for the removal of Townley to a lunatic asylum
was granted was invalid, and consequently the warrant for
the removal was illegal, null, and void, ab initzo.
3d. As to the proper course now to be taken by the

Government.
First. With reference to the newly discovered powers
given by the act of 1840. The words of the first section
are that it any person in prison, except under civil process,
shall " appear to be insane, it shall be lawful for two
justices of the peace of the county, city, borough, or
place where such person is imprisoned, to inquire, with the
aid of two physicians or surgeons, as to the insanity of such
person, and if it shall be duly certified by such justices and
such physicians or surgeons that such person is insane, it
shall be lawful for one of her Majesty's principal Secretaries
of State, upon receipt of such certificate, to direct by war-
rant under his hand that such person shall be removed to
such county lunatic asylum or other proper receptacle for
insane persons as the said Secretary of State may judge
proper to appoint." Now if the words, "it shall be lawful"
for the Secretary of State to remove Townley to a lunatic
asylum, are to be construed as absolute and compulsory,
instead of merely giving him a discretionary power, a num-
ber of gross and glaring absurdities will necessarily follow
by inevitable logical sequence. First, if these words "it
shall be lawful" mean, not what they say, but what they do
not say, namely, that the Home Secretary " shall, whether
he sees good and valid reasons or not, remove the alleged
lunatic to an asylum," the direct consequence is that the
intention of the Legislature and the meaning of the act is
to give a coupl e of country magistrates and a couple of
country doctors, power to rescue any criminal they choose
from the hands of justice. The act applies alike to all persons
in prison for anything whatever except under process in a
civil action, from murder down to a mere misdemeanour.
Is it possible that this can be the intention of the Legis-
ture and the meaning of the statute ? Every lawyer and
every layman of common sense must answer this inter-
rogation with an emphatic negative. The Home Secre-
tary ought to have ascertained that the facts of the case
really supported the certificate of insanity given by these
country doctors and country magistrates. Another absurdity
that follows from the construction that the words "it shall
be lawful," are compulsory and imperative, instead of dis-
cretionary and optional, is, that if this is so with regard to
the Secretary of State, it must be equally so where the same
words are used in the same sentence with regard to any two
magistrates, and any two physicians or surgeons in the
country. The act, as we have seen, says, that "if any
prisoner shall appear to be insane, it shall be lawful for any
two justices, with the aid of two physicians, to inquire into
and certify his insanity." Therefore, if the words "it shall
be lawful" in this first section of the act are to be construed
as peremptory and leaving no discretion, the absurdity will
follow that it is obligatory upon every magistrate in the
country to be for ever inquiring into the mental state of
every prisoner in his county, city, borough or place ;" and
also obligatory upon every physician in the country to be
for ever inquiring into the mental state of every prisoner in
the country, there being no restriction in his case to his
own "county, city, borough, or place," to the end that
they may certify insanity where it is found to be the mental
state of the subject of their inquiry. This absurdity,
monstrous as it is, is not in the least more monstrous than
the absurdity of supposing that a pair of country doctors
and a pair of country magistrates were intended by the
legislature to be invested with power to set aside the ver-
dict of a jury and the sentence of a superior judge, after a
solemn trial, and that by means of a simple certificate given
after a secret inquiry, which is of such omnipotence that it
is to compel the Crown itself through its organ the Home-
office, to rescue a wilful murderer, notoriously: not mad at
all, from the punishment which the law has ordained for
the safety of society and the preservation of life and pro-
perty from murderers and robbers. Secondly, as to the
certificate. As this matter stands at present, it seems
that some think the certificates are impeachable upon various

grounds. One of the persons who signed appears to havo

thought that he was only signing a statement of his own
opinion, and did not know the force of the document to
which he appended his name, It also appears the certi-
ficate on which tke Home-office acted was not given and
dated until after the warrant purporting to be founded upon

it was issued. But these matters will, no doubt, be made
clearer when the discussion comes on in Parliament. There

is another point, however, connected with the certificates
of more importance still. It is that the Home Secretary
does not appear to have thought it worth while to enquire
into their validity, or the validity of the grounds on
which they were given. The report of the Lunacy Com-
missioners affords some insight into the grounds
upon which Townley seems to have been con-
sidered of unsound mind by those whose minds
and judgments are so unsound as to see in him any-
thing else than a perfectly sane, but withal an unusually
perverse, revengeful, cruel, bloodthirsty, and wicked mail.
This combination of bad qualities may constitute eccentri-
city and an abnormal disposition, in the sense that happily
there are few such wretches in the world; but this is not
the insanity which exempts from punishment ; on the con-
trary, it is peculiarly in need of punishment to keep such
men in order.

This brings us to the pretence on which the plea of in-
sanity was set up. It was agreed that Townley is an atheist,
a materialist; that he does not believe in God, in a future
state of punishment for the wicked; and that he has a con-

viction that he had a right to Miss Goodwin's life. In other

his vengeance, for being re-
words, he has a right to glut

jetted by a young woman, by cutting her throat. Then
there was the story about some of Townley's freaks and
peculiarities. But who is there that has not, at some
time or other, shown a disposition to freaks,
practical jokes, eccentricities, .ke.) quite as strange as Town-
ley's. There are times when everybody is merry and fro-
licsome, and inclined to play off all sorts of tricks, and say
odd things. There are odd ways whieh everybody has, and
which are peculiar to themselves, like Dr. Johnson, the
onclei andtouching
intensely
sane phlegmatic Dr. Johnson, col-
g a iof orange peel he could lay his hands
o
posts down Fleet-street—a thing
is
enr-m lnl dt e
h dsr a
allp s
the
which, ho asserted, made him feel very uncomfortable and
dissatisfied.

But even if Townley were mad about white hate, or mad
pliers in all ages, or mad
upon theology, in company. with. Epicurus, Hume, Comte,
alt tub eui about
kenedt
thnheoao endr
ye,.
avo
efo fdgrirveearts property,phw l andoosthe law of meuna and
firmly believe they have
a divine right, under the Bible, to property in man, as
Townley believed he had a property it, woman,---what has
this to do with his being really mad in the sense that he
could not see and understand the cennection between his
being
murdering Miss Goodwin and the punishment annexed
to that crime by the law f If he could see and understand
by means of
murder,robbery,
the
intendedthis,
f ehaer iwtt
oai
nspsarpeflivrtee
prevent
jrceerirtErponegpurploestobepni punishmentnft,om
society,

and the like.
With reference to the third point, namely, the proper
course for the Government now to adopt--there can be no

doubt that in the mind of any reasonable and benevolent
man who understands the law, who desires that human life
shall not be exposed to the first ruffian who takes a fancy to
destroy it, and whose healthy sympathies are not with the
murderer but with the victim. The first section of the Act
war-
rant,of 1840, 3 and 4 Vie., cap. 54, provides that insane prisoners
remo
svchdatlol arelmunaiantitchaesryclufunbytil it shallthelo
e duly certified to
Secretary's
ono of the principal Secretaries of State, by two ph) sicians
or surgeons, that such person has become of sound mind,
whereupon the said Secretary is hereby authorised. if such
person shall still remain sulject to be continued en custody,
to give his warrant to the keeper or other person having the
care of any such asylum, directing that such person shall be
removed back. from thence to the prison, or if the imprison-
ment or custody of such person shall have expired, that he
or she shall be discharged." Now, there is no doubt that
Townley is perfectly sane, however wayward, wicked, per-
verso, revengeful, obstinate, and cruel ho may have been.
He " still remains subject to be continued in custody ;" his
" period of imprisonment or custody has not expired." The
life of every man, woman, and child in the country is en-
dangered while Townley is rewarded for a wilful murder of
all but unexampled ferocity and brutality, by being com-
fortably and gratuitously provided for in a lunatic asylum,
his only plea for escape consisting actually in that very
ferocity and brutality which renders his crime so appalling.
All our lives are jeopardised by this flagrant and outrageous
failura of justice. That the course of justice has been
wrongly arrested is no reason whatever why so heinous and

unnatural a criminal should escape in the end. Society

must be protected, life must not be exposed to ruffians of
he Townley stamp, Fiat justitia ruat coelum.