was guilty of a breach of his | aside, and conjures up in its stead duty. The law adopts no such what he calls moral sentiment and axiom. BLACKSTONE, in his the information of the wisest of Fourth Book, and 14th Chap-men. What had he to do with ter, after calling suicide pretend-moral sentiment; what had he to ed heroism, but real cowardice, do with information of the wisest proceeds to say, that the Law of of men? What had he to do, in England has ranked this amongst short, with any thing but the law; the highest crimes, making it a and, had he not that law in Blackpeculiar species of felony. Then stone, in Hawkins, and in all the he goes on thus: "The party authorities to which they refer? "must be in his senses, else it Besides, if this Coroner be right, "is no crime. But this excuse what enormous wrong has been ought not to be strained to that committed on self-murderers and "length to which our Coroners' their families! How many bodies "Juries are apt to carry it; of poor men have been buried in "namely, that the very act of the highway! Was not Smith at "suicide is an evidence of in- Manchester, who hanged himself "sanity; as if every man who on being discarded by his sweet"acts contrary to reason had no heart; was not Sellis; was not the reason at all for the same unfortunate Spanish General the "argument would prove every Marquis de Castro; were not "other criminal insane as well these buried in the highway? and "as the self-murderer. The law if this Coroner was right, again I "very rationally judges that say, what wrong has been done! "every melancholy fit does not "deprive a man of the capacity "of discerning right from wrong; "and therefore, if a real lunatic "kill himself in a lucid interval, "he is a self-murderer as much "as another man."

66

:

Blackstone is very particular in observing, that, a mere fit of melancholy is not to form a legal excuse. Look well at the evidence, and see if you can discover proof of any thing like settled insanity. But, this is not all; for if even a real lunatic kill himself in a lucid interval he is a self-murderer. Now, if you look at the evidence of Doctor Bankhead, you will find that, when the Doctor went into the dressingroom, he found Castlereagh in it; and the Doctor says, "his face was in an elevated posi

Let the public judge, then, of the manner in which this Coroner performed his duty upon this occasion. You see, even if a notorious lunatic, a man who has been a lunatic for years, kill himself in a lucid interval, the law sends his body to be buried in the highway with a stake driven through it, and makes his goods "tion, directed towards the ceiland chattels forfeit to the King; ing. Without turning his head, "hoping," says Blackstone, "that" on the instant he heard my "his care for. either his own re- step, he exclaimed, Bankhead, putation, or the welfare of his "let me fall upon your arm · "family, would be some motive "tis all over. He never "to restrain him from so desperate" spoke again." Was there ever " and wicked an act." But what any thing in the world more ra- · is there to restrain any man, if tional than this? Must not the Juries act upon the opinion of this mind have been perfectly sane, Coroner, who sets the law totally that could have distinguished the

evident to every one, that its proper name was insanity, or madness; for, if it did not amount to this, it was nothing in exculpation. Here then we have the proof; proof sufficient to satisfy a Jury, that we had a mad "leader of the House of Com

Doctor's step without seeing the Doctor; that could have, not only anticipated the fall, but have provided against it; and that could have stated, in words so appropriate, the effect which the knife had ensured? Here then was the lucid interval, at any rate; and Blackstone says, that if mons; and a mad Minister sitting even a real lunatic kill himself in in Council with the King! a lucid interval he is a self-mur- The Letter of the Duke of Welderer as much as another man. lington is a very curious affair, It is easy to conceive how anxious especially if we take it into view the family of Castlereagh must along with other circumstances. have been to prevent the conse- The Letter is written by the Duke quences of a verdict of felo-de-se. to Castlereagh's Doctor. A very Besides the burying in the high-extraordinary thing in itself. It is way, there was property to the very extraordinary that one of amount of perhaps two or three or the King's Ministers should write four hundred thousand pounds. a letter to a Doctor; should put On what ground the Jury did de- it down in black and white, that cide in favour of existing insanity another of the King's Ministers lait is not for me to say; but if their boured under “mental delirium;" decision was founded on the axiom and then it comes in so pretty laid down by the Coroner, their a way, "I beg you will never decision was clearly contrary to mention to any one what I have law. However, as I find the evi-" communicated to you respecting dênce given in the newspapers, so his Lordship." This is so very I give it to you; take it, and all pretty; so extremely likely, that the circumstances belonging to it we cannot help believing this to into view, and come to that deci- be authentic! It is so perfectly in sion which reason and justice character, as coming from a Privy dictate. Councillor; and the thing winds Now let us take another view of up so well by the newspapers the matter. According to one of telling us, that, "immediately on these witnesses, he had been in- " their announcement of the versane for a fortnight. According" dict, a despatch was forwarded to the other, he had been insane" to the Duke of Wellington, and for a shorter space of time. But," the Messenger was ordered to it unfortunately happened that he proceed with the utmost possible was present, and formed one in " expedition"! Well he might Council with the King, on the go with the " utmost possible" exFriday previous to the Monday pedition to tell the Duke that the on which he cut his throat! Ac- Doctor had already told his secret, cording to the Lady's Maid's ac- and that, too, without any necescount, he was insane some days sity for it, seeing that the verdict while he was appearing and was recorded before the Letter speaking in Parliament. These was produced! The Duke would witnesses do, indeed, call it ill not be a little surprised at the ness, and mental delusion, and news I dare say, but certainly his nervousness, and headach, and surprise would not be greater than mental delirium; but, it will be that of the whole of this nation, at

86

Here would be a solution of the whole of the wonder: a mad Secretary of State, and a mad Leader of the House of Commons.

the various parts of this wonder- before he cut his throat, to go to ful proceeding. the continent, as the King's repreWe must now take a little look (sentative, at a Congress, where at the extrajudicial assertions the affairs of Europe were to unconnected with this affair. The dergo discussion! Courier of Wednesday tells us, If all this were true, which, that the insanity under which the observe, I by no means either asact was committed is proved by sert or believe, what a pretty simany circumstances not noticed tuation this nation would be in! at the time. "Had it been pos- It would, indeed, be the envy of "sible or decorous to have de- surrounding nations and admi"manded His Majesty's testimony, ration of the world. Men would we are informed that his evi- no longer wonder at the miserable "dence could have been had;" state in which they are; no longer and then the Courier proceeds to wonder that famine and over-prosay, that the King observed it on duction of food should at once the Friday. So that, if this varlet oppress the land. of a Courier were to be believed, which he is not, observe, the King went off to Scotland with a firm belief in his mind, that he left the office of Foreign Affairs in the You will observe the pitiful hands of a madman. The Courier pretences that have been hatched further tells us in the same paper, up as the cause of this insanity. that, there had been "mental In the Letter of the Duke of Welalienation" in some of the lington, the harassing and fatigue branches of Castlereagh's family. and over-working during the last So that, here we have it running Session of Parliament are stated in the blood; and now, perhaps, as the cause. The Courier comes we may account for those expres- with an amplification of this, and sions at which I used so to laugh, says, that people who did not exabout "sudden transitions from pect it "did not sufficiently cal war to peace; about capital "culate the effect of constant apfinding its way into new channels; "plication, unrelieved by any reabout digging holes one day and creation or leisure-of nights filling them up the next; about" passed in harassing debates, Leaving things to Nature; about" and of days devoted to equally the general working of events;" harassing diplomatic uisousin short, we may now account for" sions-they did not reflect how all those wild things that I used" few hours could be passed in to say, as plainly as I dared, were "bed, and fewer still be passed never before uttered by any Gen-" in sleep." What impudence as tleman out of Bedlam, The well as nonsense! What diploCourier, in the same paper, tells natic discussions had he to worry us positively, that the King, be- him, when he had two under fore his departure, sent for Lord Li-Secretaries of State, two or three verpool to tell him that he thought dozen of clerks and messengers; Castlereagh's intellects were im- somebody to make even his pens paired. And, yet, this very same for him, and ten or a dozen hands paper of only one day before told to write as many lines of writing; us, that this very Castlereagh and this too, when, for seven long was preparing, the very day years, the King has been inces

"

santly telling us twice a year, mass of confusion is over, taking that he continues to receive no-it and laying the merits of the thing but assurances of peace and case, the pro and the con, and friendship from all foreign powers! nicely balancing one part against What diplomatic discussions had another; drawing, at last, the he, then? And as to the "harass-conclusion on which the mind of ing debates;" what harassing had the jury ought to rest: only think he, when every motion that he of all this; consider, that it is made was sure to be carried, and what every one of the Judges has nine times out of ten without an to perform almost every day of attempt at a division! If talking his life; and consider, too, that nonsense, indeed, proved him to the Judge is bound by law; that be insane, insane he has been ever every opinion he gives, every since I knew any thing of him; statement that he makes, every and certainly, the question that he colouring that he communicates to put to the witness, Anne Robin- any circumstance, are narrowly son, whether he had talked any watched by men as skilful and as nonsense to Doctor Bankhead, able as himself, who have a right proved any thing but his insanity; to call him to account, who do call for it proved that he had formed a him to account, upon the spot, if tolerably correct estimate of his he fall into error; and who can colloquial endowments. call for a revision of his decisions and bring against him any word that he may utter, and that, too, before a tribunal where his rivals sit in judgment with himself. Only think of this; and recollect, that the Judges never go mad; and so thoroughly are they imbued with a sense of obedience to the laws, that, however the cutting of throats may be in fashion, they take special good care never to cut theirs.

To talk of his mind having sunk under the load of his business is quite monstrous. The whole that he had to do, even if he had done it well, did not amount to a tenth of the labour that I have been constantly performing for these last twenty years; and if his mind sunk under his business, what is to become of the mind of a lawyer in extensive practice; of a Lord Chancellor, or of a Judge? The Chief Justice has more to do in a month than he had to do in seven years. Why, at this rate. no Lawyer or Chancellor, or Judge ought to be suffered to move about without a keeper. Only think of a trial of considerable length, proceeding out of a complicated declaration and pleadings of length enormous; only think of sitting and hearing the statements of the lawyers on both sides, of hearing the evidence of twenty or thirty witnesses, swearing to different points of the question, irregularly as possible in point of order; only think of making notes of all this, and then, when all this

It is beastly nonsense, therefore; it is nonsense such as scarcely Castlereagh himself ever uttered, to talk of his having been driven out of his senses by his load of business. Deep thinking, some people say, will drive a man mad. This is a very foolish notion; but, at any rate, how deeply Castlereagh thought, may be judged of by his speeches and the result of his measures. It is not now that I say it for the first time or for the thousandth time, for I have always said, that it was one of the most empty-headed creatures that ever existed; and that, it was sheer impudence, and the

to

If all this were true, which, observe, I by no means either assert or believe, what a pretty situation this nation would be in! It would, indeed, be the envy of surrounding nations and admiration of the world. Men would no longer wonder at the miserable state in which they are; no longer wonder that famine and over-production of food should at once Here would oppress the land.

be a solution of the whole of the wonder: a mad Secretary of State, and a mad Leader of the House of Commons.

the various parts of this wonder- before he cut his throat, to go ful proceeding. the continent, as the King's repreWe must now take a little look (sentative, at a Congress, where at the extra-judicial assertions the affairs of Europe were to unconnected with this affair. The dergo discussion! Courier of Wednesday tells us, that the insanity under which the act was committed is proved by many circumstances not noticed at the time. "Had it been pos"sible or decorous to have de"manded His Majesty's testimony, we are informed that his evi"dence could have been bad;" and then the Courier proceeds to say, that the King observed it on the Friday. So that, if this varlet of a Courier were to be believed, which he is not, observe, the King went off to Scotland with a firm belief in his mind, that he left the office of Foreign Affairs in the You will observe the pitiful hands of a madman. The Courier pretences that have been hatched further tells us in the same paper, up as the cause of this insanity. that, there had been "mental In the Letter of the Duke of Welalienation in some of the lington, the harassing and fatigue branches of Castlereagh's family. and over-working during the last So that, here we have it running Session of Parliament are stated in the blood; and now, perhaps, as the cause. The Courier comes we may account for those expres-with an amplification of this, and sions at which I used so to laugh, says, that people who did not exabout sudden transitions from pect it "did not sufficiently cal war to peace; about capital "culate the effect of constant apfinding its way into new channels;" plication, unrelieved by any about digging holes one day and creation or leisure-of nights filling them up the next; about" passed in harassing debates, leaving things to Nature; about" and of days devoted to equally the general working of events;" harassing diplomatic uisousin short, we may now account for" sions-they did not reflect how all those wild things that I used" few hours could be passed in to say, as plainly as I dared, were "bed, and fewer still be passed never before uttered by any Gen-" in sleep." What impudence as tleman out of Bedlam, The well as nonsense! What diploCourier, in the same paper, tells natic discussions had he to worry us positively, that the King, be- him, when he had two under fore his departure, sent for Lord Li- Secretaries of State, two or three verpool to tell him that he thought dozen of clerks and messengers; Castlereagh's intellects were im- somebody to make even his pens paired. And, yet, this very same for him, and ten or a dozen hands paper of only one day before told to write as many lines of writing; us, that this very Castlereagh and this too, when, for seven long was preparing, the very day years, the King has been inces

re