580 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F, 



condemns. These considerations cannot be allowed to inter- 

 fere with the execution of the criminal law, but I think they 

 should be taken into consideration in our attitude and feelings 

 towards those unfortunate persons who are subjected to its 

 operation. The eminent lawyer to whom I have so fre- 

 quently referred thinks that hatred of criminals is justifiable 

 and right, and that the importance of a proper hostility 

 towards them has of late years been much under-estimated. 

 (History of the Criminal Law, vol. 2, p. 91). In another 

 portion of the same work the author (p. 179) quotes the 

 following passage from a report addi'essed to the Commis- 

 missioners of Lunacy in 1854 by Dr. Bucknill and Dr. 

 Luke : — 



"The violent conduct of an insane patient is sometimes the 

 expression of his normal state of mind and disposition. Violent 

 and turbulent men supply their full share to the population of 

 asylums. Sometimes the red hand is palsied by the taint of 

 insanity. Sometimes the original disposition, and the power 

 to express itself in dangerous acts, remains unchanged. 

 Violence of this kind, resulting from a fierce and wicked dis- 

 position, might on first thoughts appear to justify the most 

 direct and energetic measures of repression; but when we 

 reflect how little the malevolent disposition of a sane man has 

 been proved liy the failure of all reformatory methods to be 

 modifiable by any form of repression or punishment — when 

 we reflect that punishment of any kind, even when most 

 deserved, is entirely foreign to the beneficent calling of the 

 medical men, we shall do right to conclude that it is enough 

 to distinguish this form of violence from others which are the 

 symptoms of disease, and to meet the dangers resulting from 

 it by measures of precaution, while we sti'ive to weaken the 

 force of passionate and evil temper by that long-suffering 

 charity which overcometh evil with good." 



Sir James Stephen continues : " With the latter part of this 

 extract 1 have no sympathy. It suggests that nobody should 

 ever be punished at all. Reluctance to punish when punish- 

 ment is needed seems to be to me not benevolence, but 

 cowardice, and I think that the proper attitude of juries 

 towards criminals is not long-suffering charity but open enmity ; 

 for the object of the criminal law is to overcome evil with evil." 



The learned judge's state of mind on this subject reminds 

 me of the country l)oy who was found locating a toad with a 

 stick, saying " I'll larn thee to be a toad — I'll larn thee to be 

 a toad ; " when I'emonstrated with, he i-eplied " But he war a 



