244 Proceedhu/s of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



had stolen a £5 note, he would join in the cry against the. 

 wrongdoer, because others might steal a £5 note from hiii). 

 He unhesitatingly said that the modei'n idea of the i-esponsi- 

 bilit}^ of criminals, and consequent punishment, was not the 

 best wa}^ to protect society. In the beginning of this 

 century nearly' all tlie felons were hanged, and th*; 

 adventurous spirits were drafted off to the wtirs. The 

 consequence was, to use a vulgar expression, that the breed 

 was stopped. Now, however, owing to the manner in 

 which felons were treated (imprisonment for a short period), 

 there was being developed a race as devoid of moral sens*' 

 as a child born blind was of sight ; it was nothing less than 

 propagation of the species. We were developing a typical 

 immoral race ; and if anyone were to go to the East end of 

 London and pick out ten children of from 8 to JO years of 

 age, he could predict with tolerable certainty" what would 

 become of nine of them, partly by heredity and partly by 

 surroundings. The question to be considered was not so 

 nmch their responsibility, because the law made them 

 responsible, but how were they going to protect society 

 from criminals. He would not enter into the discussion of 

 such questions as free-will, because they were not practical. 

 As to the responsibility of the insane, that was a question 

 to which it was impossible to give an answer. He might as 

 well ask the President if a bridge over the Yaria were 

 injured, what strain it would bear. The President would 

 want to know what bridge it was, the particular kind, the 

 size and other things which to an ordinary layman would 

 look absurd, and experts would differ as to the amount ot 

 strain. He might as well ask Mr. Sutherland how long it 

 would take for a boy to construe a chapter of Csesar. He 

 would want to know all about the boy and his class, and 

 what chapter was referred to. When they came to sjjeak 

 of lunatics, each case must be considered singly. The law- 

 did not recognise that there were dozens of forms of 

 insanity which ran into one another. Originally, there 

 was but one class of insanity. Then the law took note of 

 delusions, but it stopped there ; a mad man was either a 

 maniac or delusionally insane. Those laws were laid down 

 by very worthy gentlemen, who knew nothing but what 

 they found by metaphysical reasoning in the four corners 

 of their rooms. Mr. Sutherland had laid down rules f()r the 

 guidance of lunatic asylums ; the Act of Parliament did 

 not allow the medical officers to punish any lunatic. 



