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fore, when a person like the defendant, who has executed with the highest honour his painful duty, comes before you, you must do him justice. If a verdict can pass against the defendant, madness must stalk at large through our streets, for no person will then keep a respectable private madhouse, and our public establishments will not be capable of holding the patients who shall apply. You have already in proof from the witnesses called on the part of the plaintiff, that there never was a man who has conducted his house so well as the defendant; he is a pattern of humanity, kindness, and affection, to those unfortunate persons committed to his care. If persons afflicted with this dreadful malady must be removed from the bosom of their families, (the last place in which they should be kept, on account of the continued state of irritation in which they must be,) it is to the establishment of that most respectable gentleman whosits before me, that every friend would be most anxious to remove them; for if in any place they can be restored to the exercise of reason, it is in his establishment. The question for you to try is, whether Mr. Warburton, knowing that plaintiff was a perfectly sane man, was induced, with a purpose of obtaining some advantage, to shut him

up in this abode. In judging of human actions, it is right to to look to motives. What were Mr. Warburton's motives? Was it to increase his numbers? No room in his large establishment was at present vacant, Had he many more rooms, and were he able to superintend more patients, his rooms might all be soon filled, and

many would still want accommoda tion. Did the plaintiff bring him large profits? If a man of great wealth had a troublesome heir, or a troublesome wife, I can conceive that bad men might be found who for an immense sum, would lock up a sane wife or a sane heir. The plaintiff, a clergyman, with a small living, a wife and seven children, was confined, though sane, by the defendant! What sum do you think was sufficient to satisfy the cupidity of this vile bad man? 100l. per annum, and that ill paid. The defendant kept the plaintiff, although the annual stipend was ill paid, because Mrs. Chawner, the exemplary excellent wife of the plaintiff, begged and entreated that the humane Mr. Warburton would keep him in the kind manner in which he had been kept, since she could not have the happiness of keeping him at home. Even from the evidence given by the discarded servants of Mr. Warburton, it ap peared that they never saw any coercion used, not even the often salutary restraint of a strait waistcoat: he was never manacled or chained,-no, he was at liberty to go about as he pleased, as free as the air he breathed, except that he could not go out of the gates. The jury had not now to learn, that irritation was the worst, and placidi ty was the best state for a person labouring under lunacy; where the disease was reduced by regi men, and irritation had ceased, the patient was free from restraint, when the paroxysm came on he was restrained, and liberty again dawned upon him when the pa roxysm ceased. Was he kept from his friends? Had he no access to the commissioners of lunacy, whose

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duty it is not only not to permit any sane person to be kept in confinement, but to examine with the utmost care any person having the appearance of sanity? Was the plaintiff restrained from addressing them lest he should be importumate? Sir L. Pepys, attended by a chain of as learned men as ever blessed this country, had several opportunities of seeing the plaintiff, and of freeing him if he thought him sane. I therefore place Sir L. Pepys at the head of the witnesses for the defendaut. The latter conversations are of no importance, as the learned gentleman gave the Juratic special notice of their intention, and his mind was conse quently prepared: I am, therefore, bound to place Sir L. Pepys at the head of my witnesses; for if the plaintiff was sane, it was his duty to have liberated him. The highly respectable gentleman, Mr Keene, whose manner of giving his evidence did him infinite credit, has told you that he had the freest personal interviews with the plaintiff, and the most unrestrained intercourse by letter; he has also told you, that he has reason to believe that the plaintiff was confined for the same disease in 1801; and I am told that the effects of it were nearly fatal to his wife and to himself. But my learned friend has been instructed to state, that there were two conspirators against the plaintiff. Mrs. Chawner, who had an illicit intercourse with more than one, as the plaintiff has stated it, finding Mr. Chawner in the way, thinks it convenient that he should be shut up in Mr. Warburton's mad house. What is the result? Before the end of the year Mr. Warburton certifies, that the plain

tiff, may with safety return, or hopes he may with safety return, to the bosom of those of whom be had entertained an unfounded suspicion. What was Mrs. Chawher to get, by withdrawing 1001. per annum from an income already too small? What was she to get by the absence of her husband from the care of his family, and from the duties of his church? How does she conduct herself on his return home? She receives him with the greatest affection. The witness, Chamberlain, who appeared anxious to go all lengths, himself said, that he never saw people happier: to use his own expression," she was a nice gentlewomanly person." Anxious to relieve her husband from any thing which might renew unpleasant recollections, she takes upon herself to send back the keeper, and he leaves them happy. Does this remain? No, for that mind which had recovered its tone by being kept quiet, and by abstinence from wine and spirituous liquors, by indulgence is again disordered. The first person I shall call to you,-a person of whom I can hardly speak, I owe him such obligations, not alone, but in company with all those who have applied to him, as a man of as high character and reputation as any man within these walls, and I need not say more,— I mean Mr. Croft: and is Mr. Croft a copspirator and a conspirator against whom? Against a member of his own family? He signs a certificate, that, as it concerns himself and family, he would be most unwilling to do, as it is well known that when this dreadful disease has once visited a family, its renewed visitations are al

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ways feared. But reason is restored, and his wife joyfully receives Lim; but the paroxysm again returns: does she look out for some wretched apothecary to get him, without inquiry, to sign it? No: but who is selected? His own brother, the last man who could have pleasure in signing such a certificate, when madness is dreaded in every family. On one particular topic he did not think rationally. Mr. Keene says, "he pressed the subject till I checked him. If he had not we should have had the whole story, but he was examining as a friend, not as a physician." Once grant the fact, that he had reason for supposing that he had suffered the greatest mifortune next to madness, the infidelity of his wife, and all he says is rational; but the test of madness is, the reasoning well from false premises; it is having the delusion that constitutes the difference between madness and sanity. Mr. Keene has fold you, that as to moral fitness, "I know nothing to induce me to hesitate in sending my daughter to the school of Mrs. Chawner." Is there any reason to believe her to be an adulteress? If not, what greater degree of delusion, than to believe that his pure and chaste wife is an impure,-that she is unworthy of bis embraces. But does he act like a rational being? He acts like one under a delusion, -He threatens her life. What issue have you to try? not whether plaintiff was sane or not at the time, but whether Mr. Warburburton took him, knowing him to be sane.

Lord Ellenborough.-There is an issue certainly on the fact. The Attorney-General.I will VOL. LV.

make it evident that he was incontrovertibly mad, and that he is not sane at present. But what is the evidence now every thing is prepared with a view to this day? He knows why they are coming to question him. Dr. Yellowley says,

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you must not be irritable, you must not take umbrage, for I am come here to discover whether you are mad or not." This puts him on his guard: bear with me a few moments while I put those questions to you; --the madman says, oh! that is what you are at, I will answer you. When he said he did not understand why a gentleman should be cross-examined, he was desired to be quiet, and told, that it was the test whether he was to be sent back to Mr. Warburton's or not-talk sanely and we shall be able to give you a certificate. I should fatigue you were I to tell you one twentieth of the instances that have occurred to me of lunatics who have imposed upon intelligent persons, but I cannot refrain from relating one. At a time when this country was in a dreadful state of convulsion, a person of the name of Hardy, who had been confined in a mad-house, made his escape, and was received by an attorney of this court, who has since been prosecuted for high treason. The lunatic believed he was the northern star, and that he had a commission to destroy all crowned heads. His family were dreadfully alarmed at his escape, and particularly at his getting into such hands. They came to me. I advised an application to the court, and that the lunatic should attend. When I was asked to move, I said there was a gentle: man present who had a mission of great

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great importance, and if the court would permit, he himself would explain it better than any body else. By this artifice, the lunatic was led into an explanation of his mission, and on one of the keepers appearing he seized him, and although a powerful man, threw him on the seat; but on a strait waistcoat being put on, he went out of court as sane as any other person. But we could have had no such exhibition, if I had said, here is a gentleman who fancies he has a mission from heaven to destroy all crowned heads. I shall first produce Mr. Croft, who will prove that at the first time plaintiff went to the defendant, he was in the words of the justification a dangerous lunatic. I shall then cail Dr. Chawner, the brother of the unfortunate plaintiff, who will prove the same fact as to his second confinement. I shall then call Dr. Powell. If I could call my learned friend Mr. Jekyll as a witness, he would tell you that he, as a commissioner, of lunatics, has passed hours, not minutes, in examining into the condition of pa tients before he could discover where the insanity lay. A few days since a lady called on me, and followed me about to court and to the house of commons, telling me that she had no visible friends but me, but that she had many invisible friends; and I am in fact daily assailed by persons labouring under this unfortunate malady. The best plan for the building of new bedlam was given by an incurable lunatic, and was stated by all the architects to have been the most complete thing they had ever seen; although, when they learned who was the pro

jector, they thought they could discover some symptoms of madness about it. My great anxiety for Mr. Warburton dwindles into nothing when put into comparison with the interests of lunatics and the community at large. No person will dare to receive any diseas ed person, if, on the evidence of discarded servants, who say that they did not see any thing which could denote a person's insanity, a verdict should pass against my client. I am convinced, that, at this moment, the plaintiff is, in the words of the record, a dangerous lunatic, and unfit to be at large. He then called

Dr. Chawner, who swore, he was brother to plaintiff; visited him in 1801; he was then much deranged, and sent under the care of a Mr. Trent; a year or two before that he had a dispute with his brother; saw him once or twice the first time he returned from Dr. Warburton; he had no doubt be was in a state of lunacy; he could not suppose it possible that his wife was guilty of infidelity. On crossexamination he said, he did not see him for four days before lis removal to Mr. Trent's: saw hi thrice after his first return signed a certificate to Mr. Warburton. He never called to see him at defendant's, nor answered his letters, for fear of irritating him,

Dr. Croft was related to the family; when plaintiff came to London in 1805, he was perfectly deranged. He talked continually of being impuls d; and if he were impulsed more, he should kill pis wife. Witness was told by some of plaintiff's sisters, that plaintiff got out of bed, and told his wife she had but five minutes to live,

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holding an open pen-knife in one hand over her, and his watch in the other; but she having got leave to say her prayers, escaped. Witness thought it necessary to send him to Mr. Warburton's, and signed the certificate of his lanacy; and told all the circumstances to defendant.

Lord Ellenborough asked, if on this representation the defendant was not bound to receive the plaintiff.

Mr. Topping begged leave to put a few questions to witness; and on cross-examination the witness said he had heard plaintiff say that he was God Almighty. The witness believed he was a dangerous lunatic, and so did all his medical friends to whom he mentioned the case.

*Mr. Topping said, that since the justification was made out, he was bound, in justice to Mr. Warburton to say that there did not appear the least reason to impute the slightest degree of ill-treatment to that gentleman.

Lord Ellenborough said, if he was justified in taking the plaintiff, that made out the justification. The strength of plaintiff's case was, that he was kept too long; but that required a new assignment. If defendant was not safe in taking the plaintiff into his house with a certificate from a medical gentleman of high character, and a relation of the plaintiff's, plaintiff's, it would be unsafe for any person to take a lunatic patient into his house. The cause, his lordship said, bad not lasted a moment too long: it was a case of the utmost importance. It was right that unfortunate persons in plaintiff's situation should know, that their

cases would be deliberately enquired into. It was impossible not to see, that considerable light was thrown on the question by the previous lunacy of plaintiff in 1801; it appeared that his mind had a tendency to madness. He recollected a case which occupied the courts a long time, in which many most respectable persons (amongst the rest, Mr. Justice Heath), testified to the sanity of a gentleman. But it appeared, that on one point, and on that alone, he was insane. He had been ill; and had taken it into his head, that his brother, who was most affectionate, had attempted to poison him; and in consequence of that impression he left his estates away from his brother; but in consequence of the proof that was given of his insanity, the will was set aside.

His lordship began to address the jury, but the plaintiff chose to be nonsuited.

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Dr. Willis, and the most eminent physicians in London were in attendance, to give evidence on the part of Mr. Warburton. This cause lasted from nine o'clock in the morning till four in the afternoon.

Court of King's Bench, June 12. Budd v. Foulks.--The AttorneyGeneral stated, that this action was brought by the plaintiff, as treasurer of the college of physicians, to recover a penalty of 5001. from the defendant, for keeping, in her house, more than one lunatic, she not having a licence from the commissioners appointed by the 14th Geo. IH. cap. 49. As the law now stood, with the exception of the great public charities, no house could be kept for the reception of lunatics, without U 2

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