Chapter Nineteen

• Author: Richard D. Schneider
• Pages: 229-239

 

Cae Nneee

   M’Naughten verdict was swift in coming. His ac-

quittal outraged many and was criticized by most for it didn’t seem to

make sense. Queen Victoria, who was far from amused, was known

to have said: “How could he have been found not guilty? He did it,

didn’t he?”

A March th letter to the editor of e Times gave pointed expres-

sion to the public mood:

Sir, if the result of M’Naughten’s trial satises the end of justice, by

proving the moral irresponsibility of the murderer, it undoubtedly

leaves the security of Her Majesty’s subjects from similar murderous

attacks in a very unsatisfactory state. M’Naughten is not the only dan-

gerous lunatic at large – nay, his case is so common, that a term has

been invented to designate it, and was employed by his counsel, viz.,

“homicidal monomania”; in plain English, an irresistible impulse on

the part of the maniac for blood – to put some one to death.

e question then is, is the law sucient for the protection of the

public? Is there no responsibility on the part of the relatives in leav-

ing such dangerous lunatics at large? It appears in evidence that the

father was twice warned as to the state of his son’s mind – once by the

Provost of Glasgow, whose station ought to have given weight to his

opinion; but to neither was any attention paid, and it is to be regretted

that such culpable neglect and recklessness of consequences cannot be

visited by the law.

We read in Dr. Monro’s evidence that the assassin said, that at

one time he would have shot Mr. Sheri Bell dead in his seat in the

court of justice, if he had a pistol, and no one can doubt that Mr. Bell

might have been the victim. Again, it appears that one of his illusions