The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-25 00:00:00

Std' .N, LONDON TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 25, 1862.

the City of Westminster, will henceforth
be rendered impossible—by reason of the Bill yes-
terday passed through committee in the
Lords. It may be observed:that, in going through
committee, the numerical strength of the opposition
then endeavouring to impede the progress of the
measure' was tested point blank by a division in
regard to one of the clauses—clause 3, running in
the original draft of the Bill, " Nor shall the
opinion of any medical practitioner be taken in
proof of insanity !" It has long been proverbial, of
course, that doctors do unquestionably differ. And,
if the extent :to which they differ needs at any
time to be conclusively demonstrated, we need
only turn to a consideration of the evidence of
" experts" upon a given case like that in regard to
the sanity or insanity of young Mr. WINDHAM.
A certain number of mad doctors, of professional
witnesses, of scientific men qualified, one would
say, to arrive at a rational conclusion upon the
question at issue, a certain number of medical men,
surgeons or physicians, are called into the wit-
ness box by the opposing sides. A dozen or a
score, say this another dozen or another
score (you can get any number of them)
say that. Looking at the same array of facts, they
arrive at diametrically opposite conclusions. And
as to the value of such evidence itself, namely, as
to the " opinion" simply of any given medical
practitioner, the Lord Chancellor gave yesterday--
in the course of his very able argument on clause 3
as it stood—a most amusing illustration. Refer-
ring to a certain inquiry of this kind, without,
of course, specifying the name of it, the Chancellor
remarked that " half-a-dozen medical witnesses
went to see the subject of the inquiry, and the evi-
dence given by one was that the decay of mental
power might be set down as part due to mania and
part to paralysis ; and that if the paralysis had
I occurred without mania, the probability was that
he should have found her mind in a state of decay
without delusions. The doctor adduced as proof of
the patient's insanity that she could not tell how
much £lOO a year was a week. But on cross-exa-
mination the counsel asked him., in his turn, if he
could tell, and the learned doctor was observed to
hesitate. Said the counsel ' Don't be nervous, how
much is it ?' Said the doctor, ' I decline to state.'
Said the counsel, ' Is it that you will not, or that
you cannot tell ?' Said the doctor, ' I decline to
answer; Nevertheless, this medical gentleman
covered his retreat with a cloud of ' sesquipedalia
verba,' and said, ' I should call the case a mixture
of chronic mania and dementia, or, speaking in
popular language, a mixture of fatuity and mania
in a mind which had previously been
sound.' " Now that is exactly a ease in
point. It serves to illustrate distinctly the fact
that the mere " opinion" of medical practitioners
given in this loose off-hand manner in a court of
justice, ten on one side and ten on the other, is in
itself utterly valueless. There is no end to it either,
except so far as the length or shortness of the purse
upon each side might tend to restrict or to increase
the number of professional men called pro and con
into the witness-box. Otherwise one might array
in formidable processions, upon this side and upon
that, now the whole divided aggregate of
M.M.R.C.S.,now the whole catalogue of learned and
unlearned men, whose names are inscribed (there
are happily not very few of the latter) upon the
living list of the Royal College of Physicians.
Never anywhere (more glaringly than in instances
of this:character) it is a matter of such absolute cer-
tainty, upon evidence of a professional kind, that the
result will be, as the familiar phrase is—six and
half-a-dozen. And it is to get rid of evidence of
this description, as really, to all intents and pur-
poses, as we have said, valueless, that clause 3 was
introduced there, in the very preamble of the New
Lunacy Bill by the Chancellor—a clause declaring,
as we have seen, that henceforth no " opinion" of a
medical practitioner shall be taken in proof of in-
sanity. Reasonable, as all past experience tells us,
though the clause is upon the very face of it—
strange to say, it was opposed last evening, so to
speak, tooth and nail, as though it were really
some perilous and rash innovation, it was op-
posed in this way by two learned ex-Chan-
cellors, sitting upon opposite sides of the House of
Lords, by Lord CHELMSFORD and by Lord CRAN
1 WORTH. Ineffectually opposed, we cannot but re-
joice to remember now : otherwise one:of the most
valuable clauses of a truly admirable bill, would
have been hastily :erased from it—the retention
of clause 3 upon the bill being decided
by a clear majority of twelve in a House of
sixty-four, 38 voting for the clause and only 26
against it. With a few trifling modifications, the
Bill of Chancellor WESTBURY has passed there-
fore in its integrity through committee, and on
Thursday it is to be read a third time ; so that it
will be carried down to the House of Commons long
before the Easter Holidays can have commenced.
Out of evil, consequently, is again coming good.
The Windham Inquiry resulting by necessity, as
it seems, in this wholesome readjustment of the
Laws relating to Lunacy.

On the twenty first of July, 1861, the Federal
Forces fled in headlong panic before the Confede-

rates at BULL'S RUN. On the seventh of March,

1862, the Confederate forces left the works which

gained them the victory, without firing a shot.
On the 10th of this month the Northern army of
the Potomac advanced to find a second time that

they had no enemy to encounter. Thus ends the
long-played drama of Manassas and Bull's Run. A
reconnoitring troop of 2,000 men treads the ground
over which their comrades trod the reverse way,
shrieking for their lives last summer, and all to find
—nothing at Centreville—nothing at Manassas,
but the blackened and burnt remains of all that
could not be carried away. This looks like
a confession of Northern power and superiority
on the Potomac ; probably caused in part by the
rapid development of the strength of the Northwest
forces in Kentucky and Tennessee, and the with-
drawal of Confederate troops westward. But yet it
reads somewhat ingloriously. The 21st of last July
seemed to demand some nobler atonement than the
deliberate retreat of the victorious army before over-
whelming numbers. Still, the substantial gain
must be with the North. Gordon's-ville, to which
the Confederates are said to have retreated, is only
about 50 miles from Richmond itself, the Virginian
capital. The .21'ery York Times regards the retreat
as a confession that the war is ended. A very pre-
mature conclusion, especially so when the now cele-
brated naval battle and victory at the mouth of St.
James River occurred the same day as the evacua-
tion of Manassas.
The PRESIDENT has now, however, become both
politically and militarily bold. He has carried his
emancipation proposal in the House of Representa-
tivesby the large majority, 88 to 31, and will doubt-
less carry it in the Senate. But he means by mili
tart'
occupation to make it as desirable for haughty
Virginia to accept payment for its slaves as for
Maryland or Kentucky to do so. On last Saturday
the
to Western Virginia, was to advance ; and, though
to
army of the Potomac, from Fort Monroe
what it has to do with the Northern movement we
do not exactly see, the naval force in the Gulf of
Mexico was to be ready for action on the same day.
Northern Virginia would seem to be quite open to
the Federals. Their opponents have now aban-

Boned the whole of the Potomac quite down to the
sea ; indeed the Confederates have been able to de-
stroy their own batteries on the river, and to burn
the only Confederate steamer they found on it. We
shall soon hear, however, whether the Confederates
make a serious stand anywhere north of Richmond

itself.
Success also attends the Federal arms in the
West, as well as in Virginia. General HALLECK
is again victorious with his Missouri army over
the rebels in that part, having eompletely routed
them, after three days' hard fighting, in the slave
State of Arkansas itself. The losses are reported
as very large on both sides, but we may hope, as
usual, largely exaggerated. In Tennessee the Con-
federates are reported to have made a stand at a
place where four railroads meet ; its name is un-
known to maps, and probably incorrectly given.
We read of a further stand made by the Confede-
rates on an island in the Mississippi, and
of General BEAUREGARD, who has been
long lost from sight in the West, going thither
to lead them. The sum, however, of the
whole is, that, with exception of the naval victory,
the Confederates are everywhere giving way.
Whether they will be able to make a better resis-
tance by concentrating their forces remains to be
seen. They are being rapidly pressed back to the
planting States; and as to the coast, this very mail
informs us that another of the Southern ports, the
one on the confines of Georgia and Florida, has been
added to the list of Federal conquests. We shall now
see what is the reported determination of the South.
Whether they will be dispirited and make terms,
or fight to the last, time only can tell. We do not
believe in the commisariat difficulties of advancing
through Virginia on which the journal which advo-
cates the Southern cause in England lays such stress.
Nature will not fight for the South till the States
are reached which are almost in a state of nature.
It will be of little use, however, for their sparse
populations, moro than half of them negroes, to
think of setting up for themselves. All must
follow, if Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia are
lost to the South, and they are all accessible to the
Federal arms both by sea and by land.

LATEST NEWS.

PARIS, MARCH 25, MORNING,

The Constitutionnel of this morning, in an article
signed by M. Boniface, declares that the rumours
of a change in the Ministry have not the least
foundation.

NAPLES, MARCH 22,
Five English war vessels are in the Bap•

LISBON, MARCH 25.

News has been received here from Loanda, in
Western Africa, announcing that the Portuguese
troops had fallen into an ambuscade. Major Niazil
and 50 men were killed by the natives.

MILAN, MARCH 23.
It is asserted here that a grand demonstration
has taken place at Verona.
Fireworks are said to have been discharged
showing the Italian tricolour.
Many Hungarian soldiers have been arrested at
..Vlantua.

MONZA, MARCH 24.
Garibaldi has arrived at this town, and has been
greeted with an enthusiastic reception.

ST. PETERSBURG, MARCH 24. I
Count Nesselrode, Chanceller of the Empire, died
yesterday at 8 p.m.
The invalide Russe denies the rumour of an in-
tending disbanding of the Cuirassier Regiments of
the Guard.

CONSTANTINOPLE, MARC" 22.
The breaking up of the ice on the Danube has
damaged several ships.