290 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1813. 



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 al- 

 though a powerful man, threw him 

 on the seat ; but on a strait waist- 

 coat 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 pro- 

 duce Mr. Croft, who will prove 

 that at the first time plaintiff went 

 to the defendant, he was, in the 

 words of the justification, a dan- 

 gerous lunatic. I shall then call 

 Dr. Ghawner, the brother of the 

 unfortunate plaintiff, who will 

 prove the same fact as to his second 

 confinement. I shall then call 

 Dr. Powell. If 1 could call my 

 learned friend Mr. Jekyll as a wit- 

 ness, he would tell you, that he, as 

 a commissioner of lunatics, has 

 passed hours, not minutes, in ex- 

 amining 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 ♦his 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 

 tbey learned who was the pro> 



jector, they thought they could dis- 

 cover some symptoms of mad- 

 ness 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 per- 

 son 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 de- 

 ranged, 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 Mr. 

 Warburton ; he had no doubt he 

 was in a state of lunacy; he could 

 not suppose it possible that his wife 

 was guilty of infidelity. On cross- 

 examination he said, he did not see 

 him for four days before his removal 

 to Mr. Trent's; saw him thrice 

 after his first return ; signed a cer- 

 tificate to Mr. Warburton. He 

 never called to see him at defend- 

 ants, 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 impulsed ; and if he were 

 impulsed more, he should kill his 

 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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