The Cannock Chase Examiner. — 1875-09-11 (Cannock, Staffordshire, England)

RELICA OT PETER TIIR GREAT.—The visit of Peter the Great to this country, and the tact with which he preserved his incognito for a long period, are matters of history. and have furnished subjects not only for the drama but for operatic librettos. It might have been imagined I that, after a period of nearly two centuries, every' vestige which his Imperial Majesty left behind him of his visit had long since been secured either by English searchers after valuable mementos of the great, or else by some of the old Russian nobles whose loyalty amounts to veneration, not only of Peter the Great himself, but of everything which belonged to him. Such, however, has not been the ease, for it was reserved to a M. Stanislaus, a Pole, to rescue some relics of the Imperial ehipwright front the obscurity in which they have lain since 108. In the London Gazette of that date we find a full description of a sideboard, a bookcase, and an iron chest, the work of his Imperial Majesty, and it is these articles that have just been discovered in Great Tower street, in splendid condition, by M. Stauislaus. They have now become the property of an eminent Russian nobleman, Gregoire Tschortkoff, who intends presenting them to the Emperor of Russia, in order that they may be placed amongst other reminiscences of Peter the Great at Moscow. For a few days all these newly discovered relics may be seen at M. Julien's, 39, Great Russell street, who is commissioned to forward them to Russia. MURDEROVS Levsrics.—Dr. Forbes Winslow writes as follows in reference to the frequency of murders by lunatics :—A week scarcely passes without our reading of one or more murders or outrages perpetrated by dangerous lunatics at large; and, notwithstanding a special provision in the Lunacy Act enabling relieving officers and others to see that such lunatics are properly taken care of in asylums, this duty is, lam sorry to say, frequently neglected, to 'the detriment of society generally. It in for the jury in these eases to decide whether the murderer at the time of the criminal act was of Bound or unsound ! mind ; and not only this, but whether he was cognisant of the atrocity of his crime, and was noffi-1 ciently able to distinguish between right and wrong. The plea of insanity in criminal cases is one now very ; frequently urged, and a murder is rarely committed without the saniiy of the prisoner being questioued. Medical experts are consulted as to the advirsibilit) of setting forward this plea, and grave responsibility is incurred by those advising. By law every pernor. is supposed to be of sound mind until he is legally proses] not to be so, and, this being the case, all persons of unsound mind who commit offences while free agents are submitted to the same ordeal and trial as if they were responsible being's. A patient in an asylum must be regarded as irresponsible for his actions; he is placed there by his friends for protection and care, and he need not be dangerous to himself or others to be so confined. I may here state, as the result of • long practical experience in the care and treatment of the insane, that out of a hundred lunatics legally certificated in asylums there are not more than three or four who do not know the difference between right and wrong. Of course Ido not include imbeciles, idiots, and demented cases, who have  no power of mental co'nee—n—trarom— Homicidal insanity Is generally impulsive, and the murderer who has no control over his actions for the time being may imagine that a sudden command is given him to destroy a certain person, and after the set he express contrition and remorse for the °rinse.