The Sun. — 1860-05-30 (London, England)

COURSE OF EXCHANGE.—YESTERDAY. Amsterdam Ditto Rotterdam — 11 161 11 161 Antwerp Brussels — 2.5 30 25 35 flamturgh Paris Ditto Marseilles — 25 35 25 40 Frankfort on Maine — 1171 1171 Vienna 'Trieste Petersburgh — 34$ 34 Madrid Cadiz 49 Leghorn — 30 40 30 45 Milan — 25 40 25 45 Genoa — 25 40 25 45 Naples • • Palermo — • •  Messina Lisbon Oporto Rio Janeiro New York •• Foreign Gold in Bars (Standard), ...per oz. £3 17 9 Mexican Dollars •.. „ 0 5 2} Silver in Bars (Standard) „ 0 5 la South American Doublons  52 521 524 521  nre JEER .1"1' 7Ru'.  What is her Majesty's pleasure as to crimina. lunatics ? This is a question which probably many people have asked themselves with that vague kind of wonder which melts in to a general and indefinite belief, that, no doubt, it is reasonable enough. It is, however, a question for which we are particularly interested in obtaining a satisfactory solution now that legislation impends. An excellent little pamphlet, recently published by Dr. Hood, furnishes the materials for an answer. Some of those who ale thus sentenced to indefinite detention are guilty of slight offences, while others have cornMittes the gravest crimes—even murder. But the verdict of insanity card& with it the sentence of prolonged imprisonment, whatever be the offence of the defendant. Hence lately, in the case of a certain Thos. Johnson, charged before Baron Martin with an offence punishable by one month's imprisonment, but who pleaded insanity, only the humane interposition of the judge prevented a sentence which might probably have led to imprisonment for life, by suggesting the withdrawal of the plea of insanity. In these cases not only is justice violated by a cruel and exaggerated punishment, but the State is charged unnecessarily with the support for life of one who should contribute his share to the resources rather than to the burthens of the country. Dr. Hood suggests as a remedy, that whenever insanity is set up as a defence, the trial of the prisoner for the offence of which he is charged should be postponed, at whatever stage it may have arrived, until the state of the patient's mind be ascertained before an ordinary jury, whose verdict of insanity shall be recorded by the court as an answer to the previous indictment. These cases are at present tried hurriedly before juries assembled for trifling criminal causes, and often disposed of without any previous notice of the intended defence being given to the prosecutor. Even if such verdicts be correctly given, another evil often follows in the existing state of things. A villain of the worst character, being acquitted on the score of insanity, and ordered for confinement in a lunatic asylum, recovers from his mental aberration, and remains all his life a vicious and violent inmate of a medical institution, where none of the arrangements are calculated to punish his crime or to subdue his propensities, and is a constant source of anxiety to those who have charge of him. It is surely desirable that power should be given for duly trying after recovery prisoners found insane upon arraignment. These considerations should be urged in the subsequent settlement of the Law of Lunacy.—The Lancet.