676 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION V. 



the niakino" and those who have the administration of our 

 laws hght enough to guide them to such principles of action, 

 imperfect at the hest, as are consistent with our present social 

 state. 



The law of England, as to the effect of madness on 

 criminality, is stated as follows in Sir James Stephen's Digest 

 of the Criminal Law : — 



" JNo act is a crime if the person who does it is at the time 

 when it is done prevented [either by defective mental power, or] 

 by any disease affecting his mind. 



" (a) From knowing the nature and quality of his act, or 

 " (b) From knowing that the act is wrong^ [or 

 " (c) From controlhng his own conduct, unless the absence 

 of the power of control has been produced by his 

 own default. 

 " But an act may be a crime although the mind of the 

 person who does it is affected by disease, if such disease does 

 not m fact produce upon his mind one or other of the effects 

 above mentioned in reference to that act." 



Illustratio7is. 



" (1.) A kills B under an insane delusion that he is breaking 

 a jar. A's act is not a crime. 



" (2.) A kills B knowing that he is kilHng B, and knowing 

 that it is wrong to kill B, but his mind is so imbecile that he is 

 unable to form such an estimate of the nature and consequences 

 of his act as a person of ordinary intelligence would form. 

 A's act is not a crime if the words within the first set of 

 brackets are law. If they are not, it is. 



" (3.) A kills B knowing that he is killing B, and knowing 

 that it is illegal to kill B, but under an insane delusion that 

 the salvation of the human race will be obtained by his 

 execution for the murder of B, and that God has commanded 

 him (A) to produce that result by those means. A's act is a 

 crime if the word ' wrong ' means illegal. It is not a crime 

 if the word ' wrong' means morally wrong. 



" (4.) A suddenly stabs B under the influence of an impulse 

 caused by disease, and of such a nature that nothing short of 

 the mechanical restraint of A's hand would have prevented 

 the stab. A's act is a crime if (c) is not law. It is not a 

 crime if (c) is law. 



"(5.) A suddenly stabs B under the influence of an impulse 



' Variously interpreted as meaning 7norally torong and illegal 



