A Court of Lunacy

Abstract

Lord Bramwell's article in the “Nineteenth Century” on criminal responsibility has been succeeded in the issue for February by another, entitled “A Court of Lunacy.” This essay, written by the Eight Hon. Lord de Mauley, consists mainly of a number of propositions, dogmatic assertions, and crudities, which at once excite astonishment and invite criticism. Had the article been anonymous, or appeared in a journal of less distinction, it might have been passed over in silence. We are quite at a loss to know what claim the noble author has to be heard on a subject requiring, as he himself allows, special knowledge and ability. “The signature of a magistrate, the countersign of a physician, and the man disappears“—such is the curt description of the security of the liberty of the person, in order to show how flimsy it is and how dangerous is the laxity of our lunacy laws. No reference is made to the double certificates required for private cases—those only in which there is any serious fear of improper “incarceration”—nor is there any adequate recognition of the checks upon the interested detention of patients in asylums when they have been too hastily admitted.