The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-19 00:00:00

THE TOWNLEY CASE.

REPLY OF THE DERBYSHIRE MAGISTRATES TO THE
HOME SECRETARY'S COMMUNICATION.
An important and numerously attended meeting of the
Visiting Justices and Magistrates of Derbyshire was held
at the County Gaol, Derby, on Friday last, when the cor-
respondence recently received from Sir George Grey was
taken into consideration. After mature deliberation, a reply
to the Home Secretary, asking for a public inquiry into
Townley's state of mind, was unanimously adopted, and
forwarded to Sir George Grey on Saturday evening. Tho
following is the concluding and most important part of this
reply :
The report made to you by the Lunacy Commissioners on
Dec. 28 seems to the magistrates not to support the certifi-
cate of the two justices and two medical men, but to show
that Townley is now by law criminally responsible, and
that the further inquiry sought by the magistrates ought to
be made. The commissioners, after referring to their exa-
mination of the officials, proceed to say—
" The result of this examination of the officials of the pri-
son may be stated briefly as in effect establishing, without
dispute, that there has been substantially no change in the
prisoner's mental state since the trial ; that such difference
or alteration as may have been noted has bean an improve-
ment, and that ho has been altogether more at ease, more
resigned, and at times even cheerful, since the scutence was
passed upon him. Not at any time since he was first brought
to the gaol, according to the testimony of all who have had
the means of watching him closely, does he appear to have
been more rational than he is at present."
In a subsequent paragraph they say—
"ln view of the extravagant opinions thus deliberately
professed by him (the details aro appended to the report) of
his extraordinarily perverted moral sense, and of the here-
ditary taint alleged, and apparently proved, to have existed
in the family of the prisoner's grandmother, wo cannot con-
sider him to be of sound mind ; but his views of right and
wrong, false as they are, appear to have been coherently
acted upon, and with a full sense of what they involved.
He reasons now as he auted in committing the murder."
And they conclude their report thus—
" Being of opinion, therefore, that the prisoner continues
to bo now in the same mental state as when he committed
the murder and underwent his trial, wo think that, apply-
ing the law as laid down by Mr. Baron Martin to this case,
the prisoner, George Victor Townley, was justly convicted."
The magistrates infer from this report that a man may
be not of sound mind in a psychological sense, and yet be
criminally responsible in a legal sense. And Mr. Gisborne,
the surgeon to the gaol, has to-day made to the visiting
justices the following statement, viz : —" I did not call the
attention of the visiting justices to the state of Townley's
mind, because I did not consider him legally insane."
In the instructions to the commissioners it is stated that
" Sir George Grey is of opinion that the verdict of the jury,
in which Mr. Baron Martin concurs, decides the question
as to the sanity of the prisoner at the time when the crime
was committed."
And as the commissioners have reported Townley to be in
the same mental state as when "he committed the mur-
der," and that "he was justly convicted," it seems impos•
aible to escape the conclusion that he is now criminally
responsible. The verdict established the sanity of Townley
at the time of the murder. The commissioners report, that
there has not been any unfavourable change in his mental
condition, therefore shows his sanity now.
the magistrates, therefore, being now confirmed in their
view by the report of the Lunacy Commissioners, again urge
upon you the propriety and necessity of causing a full public
inquiry to be made into Townley's state of mind, and his
criminal respensildlity.
If the existing legal machinery is not deemed equal to
the occasion, the meeting of
Parliament is at handhe
the defect may be supplied.—We are, sir, your mos websdient servants,

T. W. EVANS, M.P.,
Chairman of the Quarter Sessions.
WM. MTSNDY, M.P.„
Chairman of the Visiting Justices.
To the Hight Honourable Sir George Grey, Bart.,
Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home
Department.

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CHARGE AGAINST A CONGREGATION.—On Sun-
day last the minister of a large congregation in
Dundee was interrupted in the course of his forenoon ser-
mon by the repeated coughing of his auditors. Pausing in
the midst of his observations, he addressed his congrega-
tion to the following effect :—" You go about the streets at
the New Year time—you get drunk, and get cold, then you
come hero and cough, cough like a park of artillery. I think
I must give you a vacation of six weeks, that you may have
time to get sober and regain your health again." He there-
after went on with his discourse, which was concluded amid
much greater quiet than it had been tegun ; but just as the
congregation were dismissing an indignant seatholder in
the gallery rose up and loudly declared that the remarks of
the pastor were nothing less than an insult to the whole
congregation,--1702*; ciwrier,