The Blackpool Herald. — 1886-11-19 (Blackpool, Lancashire, England)

KENDAL. MILNE, AND CO., MANCHESTER.  KENDAL, MILNE, AND C 0 . DEANSGATE, POLICE ST. & ST. ANNE'S ST., MANCHESTER,.  FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19TH, 1886.  and above and beyoud that a movement has been successfuly inaugurated and consummated which is likely to largely increase the quantity of fresh-water required by the town, if the Company, however, will do nothing to meet us, then it is only reasonable that we should insist upon having all the consideration and privileges granted us by the Act of Parliament. The Council ought to insist upon an adequate filtration of the water supplied to the town, and we sincerely trust that on Tuesday next they will unanimously agree upon that coarse.  JAMES MErzort, blacksmith, who brutally murdered his wife and sister -in - law at Lytham, was put on his trial at the Liverpool Assizes on Tuesday last, when the jury found the prisoner guilty of murder, but were of opinion that he was not responsible for his actions, on the ground of insanity. This is the view we have taken of the matter from the beginning, a'conclusion which was strongly supported at the trial by both Dr. Fisher, of Lytham, and Dr. Wallis, of Whittingham Asylum. Both gentlemen expressed the opinion that Mellor was not sane either on the day of the murder or at the present time, and in the face of such evidence it is difficult to see how the jury could have returned any other verdict than that which they brought in. Of course the definition of insanity is a very delicate and difficult task. The Judge, in summing up, rightly pointed out that the term insanity was often used vaguely and incoherently to establish insanity in a Court of Justice. In the only true sense of the word it must be shown that the person alleged to be insane was at the time the act was committed ignorant of the nature and quality of the act. In other words the prisoner must show that either he did not know what he was doing or that he did not know what he was doing was wrong. He called attention to the statement of one of the witnesses, which was to the effect that the man knew the nature of the deed which he committed. He asked them not to suppose that mere violence of temper was in a legal sense insanity. It would be a dangerous thing to let it be supposed that the more audacious, the more reckless, and the more violent the crime the more the person committing it ought to be relieved from the responsibility of it on account of insanity. No doubt this was a very fair and imt artial way of laying the case, and one which cannot but command universll respect. We, however, very much incline to the opinion expressed in an evening contemporary, that "whatever be the degree and character of Mellor's madness, we rejoice rather than regret every decision which, whilst it protects society from the risk which might arise from releasing the offender, gives the prisoner the fullest berefit of any doubt as to his responsibility for his actions. There is besides a growing disgust at the infliction of capital punishment. Till the public at large and the Legislature are impressed with the desirability of abolishing the death penalty, we cannot hut regard it as a favourable sign that those men who as jurymen are most acutely brought face to face with the problem of taking life for life, should show an increasing disposition to generously estimate every extenuating circumstance which may preserve a fellow creature from the gallows."  THE question "What's to be done with our gaols„' is beginning to be asked, and not without occasion. The ninth report of the Commissioners of Prisons shows that the remarkable decrease in the prison population which commenced in a marked way in 1877 has been continued during the past year. On the 31st March, 1878, the population of the prisons was 20,833; on the same day in 1885 it was 16,619 only. Last year, however, exhibits an accelerated rate of diminution, the number being on the 31st of March last 15,375 only, composed of 12,467 males and 2,908 females. This rate, maintained in the face of the increase of population, would evidently in a few years render the gaol accommodation altogether in excess of the local needs. Even within the last year, indeed, the prisons of Huntingdon, Clerkenwell, and Coldbath Fields have been closed, while Pentonville convict prison has been made a local prison, and a portion of the prison at Bodmin is about to be transferred to the Admiralty for naval purposes.