Sacramento daily record-union., 1883-10-24
LONDON LETTER.
PLEA OF INSANITY BEFORE TIE EN-
GLIsH COURTS.
Terr1bls Work Of a Madman-An Army Of
Persons Falsely Imprisoned as Lu-
naties-The Lord Mayor-Etc.
Loxpox. October 4. 1889.

herself by the appointment OF public
hsngman. In future, as in the past, one
man is to stand forth in this country at
the legaliEed slayer of his fellow mortals.
Bartholomew Binns kills for money, and
the taking of human life is simply the trade
by which he earns his livelihood. Every
refined nature must shrink from the CON.
temptation of such an odious character,
and doubtless the continuance of this Office
will swell the ranks Of the large number OF
people here who would be glad to see capi.
tai punishment altogether abolished. But
Mr.. Binns, it appears, is to be cheated out
Of one of his victims, and the case is SO
extraordinary both in the details of the
crime and in the sequel to the trial, that l
shall trouble your readers with brief re-
cital of 1t.
THR TERRIBLE RECITAL.
Just about two months ago William
Gouldstone killed his five children. The
three eldest he drowned in a cistern in the
back kitchen, afterwards taking out the
bodies and laying them side by side on the
floor. Then he went up stairs and knocked
in the skulls Of the twins his wife had
brought into the world week before, only
remarking to his Mortified companion as he
finished his bloody work, Now shall be
hanged and you will be free." Public feel.
ing was greatly shocked at this crime, and
for the cake of humanity it was hoped that
the author of it would be proven insane.
This hope was even expressed by the Judge
in his charge to the Grand Jury. But to
establish insanity as a bar to guilt before
an English Court is difficult task. Med
icsl testimony was admitted, but 1t was 80
manipulated by the counsel for the prose-
cution, and go disparaged by the Judge,
that it amounted to nothing 1t was also
shown in evidence that the man had ex-
hibited symptoms of insanity previously,
snd that his mother and aunt were luna
tics. His ch aracter for industry and sobri-
ETY., and the affection he had manifested
for his children prior to the tragedy, were
likewise brought out at the trial, and the
contention OF his attorney was that heTed-
itsry unsoundness of mind had been brought
into activity under the melancholy he felt
consequent upon the rapid increase in his
family. This was a most plausible plea in
view of the facts, for the testimony proved
conolusively that at the birth of the twins,
which swelled the number of his children
TO FIVE in four years and half after mar
rage, four being still Gin arms" so to
speak, with but six dollars week coming
IN to meet expenses,
HIS MANNER ENTIRELY CHANGED
Both toward his family and fellow. work
men. "The thing that struck me most, "
says his wife, was that he never took any
notice of the babies. His appearance
seemed changed and his eyes were strange
snd wandering" All this was fully estab.
Gshed at the trial, but, except in arousing
public attention, it did no good. The case
was finished in few hours, and the jury
deliberated fifteen minutes. Mr.. Justice
Day, in summoning up, observed that the
point the jury had to decide was not
whether the prisoner was sane or insane,
but whether at the time he committed the
act he was in such a condition of mind
as not TO know that he was killing his
children, or that, in doing 30, he was doing
wrong. This, of course, settled the mat
ter, for the man obviously had some COM
prehension both of the nature of the crime
and of the penalty likely to follow it, and
the jury had no alts~2ative under such
charge but to bring in, as they did, a ver
dict of guilty. But this did not end the
case. The newspapers and the public took
1t up, and the Home Secretary was ap,
pealed to. The strict legality of the de-
oision was not questioned the point made
was that the law is faulty, and that in the
present instance it had, on technicality,
condemned to the gallows
AB IRRBsP oNsIBLE HADhAN.
DR.. Savage, head physician of the Bethlehem
Hospital for the insane, the medical expert
who took part in the trial, wrote to the
press as follows "The skillful cross.ex.
animation of Mr.. Poland gave me no op-
portunity of presenting my opinion on the
mans sanity. l was forced to own that in
a short interview, from the facts seen by
myself, l could not have signed certif-
cate of insanity. l did say, however, that
taking my examination with the history of
the man and the crime, 1 had no doubt he
was OF unsound mind. That the patient
knew he had killed his children, and that
he knew he might be hanged 1 could not
deny, but knowledge of tn, does not
exclude insanity. l have hel ients OF
the most insanely and dangerous class who
have said the same things which Gould
stone said, and who know as much as he
does, yet they are mad" DIR. Savage ap-
pealed for thorough investigation Of the
condemned mans mental condition, and
his appeal was seconded with much vigoT
by the British Medical Journal Being
one of the best authorities in the kingdom
on this subject, the remarks Of that paper
are well wo;th reproducing.
THE STATEMENT:
" Medical evidence is jeered at and dis.
regarded" it says, but no steps are taken
to test its truthfulness. Let US suggest
one such step. In scores Of cases during
the last twenty years medicAlmen have beer
interviewed to save from the gsllows CON
victs tried, by the aid of eminent counsel
and condemned to death by eminent
Judges, but whom they have regarded aE
insane and in 3 large number of cases
their intervention has been successful, the
capital sentence having been oommuted,
often amidst loud protests and severe
structures on the eccentric notions of mad
doctors. Now let return be obtained oi
the subsequent history of all these cases
in which the capital sentence has beer
eommuted on the ground Of insanity. f.
in any considerable proportion of these
cases it should appear that the doctors
have been wrong, snd that the convicts
whose lives were saved were not really in
sane, then there will be good grounds fol
receiving medical testimony with increas.
ing caution and diminishing authority
But if, on the other hand it should appear,
as we confidently predict it would, that ir
every instance, without exception, in which
the death penalty has been set aside il
consequence of medical representations re,
garding insanity, the most indisputsblt
symptoms of madness have been subse
quently e1hibised-symptoms recognizable
not oaly by medical men bat by the gov
ernors, ohsplains and lay officers of sh'
establishment in which the convicts hav'
been conined-then there will be grounds
oa1ol,d;rr kbok tpaana Y1aroo1