SUICIDE. 



SUIT. 



898 



from birth, ;.re confined in-doors, have their rest disturbed, or have 

 little muscular exercise." 



From what has been said of the variety of causes which may engen- 

 der or encourage the disposition to suicide, it must be manifest that 

 no general account can be given of the morbid conditions of the body, 

 or of the brain, which accompany the mental disturbance. Many facts 

 relating to this part of the subject have been related ; but as yet they 

 are unconnected by any generalisation. We may therefore proceed at 

 once from the causes to the treatment of the suicidal disposition. 



Here also what has been said of the one may serve for a guide to the 

 knowledge of the other. With respect to the treatment of those 

 among the insane who exhibit a tendency to self-destruction, there can 

 be no other deviation from the ordinary treatment of insanity than 

 that which consists in the careful removal from them of all means by 

 which their intentions may be accomplished. Both for these and for 

 those who show no other sign of insanity than their desire for death, 

 the most successful remedy is the giving full occupation for the tune ; 

 this is indeed essential to the safety of all who show any disposition to 

 suicide. The occupation moreover should be one which will carry the 

 mind as far as possible from the subjects on which it is morbidly sensi- 

 tive, or on which it has been accustomed to dwell too intently. Above 

 all, a person suspected of an intention to commit suicide, should be 

 kept carefully from the contemplation of histories of self-destruction. 

 Numerous instances have proved that the tendency to imitate the acts 

 of others operates as forcibly in producing suicides as in encouraging 

 the most trivial fashion. For all cases of imitative suicide there 

 is a plain preventive means which should never be neglected, namely, 

 the fear of . being disgraced after death ; and that this operates 

 forcibly in deterring men from suicide, is a sufficient proof of the 

 imprudence of the opinion which regards suicide as affording by itself 

 sufficient evidence of the insanity and irresponsibility of those who 

 commit it. 



SUICIDE, in Law, is death caused by the act of the party dying. 



A rescript of Hadrian expressly directed that those soldiers who, 

 either from impatience of pain, from disgust of life, from disease, 

 from madness, from dread of infamy or disgrace, had wounded them- 

 selves or otherwise attempted to put a period to their existence, should 

 only be punished with ignominia (' Dig.,' 49, tit. 16, s. 6, ' De He 

 Militari ') ; but the attempt of a soldier at self-destruction on other 

 grounds was a capital offence ; and those who, being under prosecution 

 i'T heinous offences, or being taken in the commission of a great 

 tint an > ml to their existence from fear of punishment, for- 

 fi-it.-d all their property to the Fiscus. ('Dig.,' 48, tit. 21, s. 3.) 

 Siii.-ide was not uncommon among the Romans in the later republican 

 period ; and it became very common under the emperors, as we see 

 from the examples in Tacitus, and in the younger Pliny, who mentions 

 the cam of Corellius Rufus (' Ep.,' i. 12), Silius Italicus (iii. 7), Arria 

 (iii. 1'i), and the woman (vi. 24) who succeeded in persuading her 

 husliand, who was labouring under an incurable disease, to throw him- 

 led to her, into a lake. [Siucs ITALICUS, in BIOG. Div.] 

 Except in the case* mentioned in the two titles of the ' Digest ' above 

 cited, suicide was not forbidden by the Roman law ; nor was it dis- 

 countenanced by public opinion. 



Suicide, by the law of England, is a crime attended by some of the 

 consequences attached to felony. It is called, in law, though incor- 

 rectly, felon 10 de . A felon die te then is a person who being of years 

 of discretion and in his senses, destroys his own life, either intending 

 to do so, or intending to do some other act of a character both 

 unlawful and malicious ; the legal effect of which is a forfeiture to the 

 crown of all the personal property which the party had at the time he 

 committed the act by which the death was caused, including debts 

 due to him. Though the crime is called felony, it was never attended 

 with forfeiture of freehold, and never worked any corruption of blood. 

 But formerly the crown was entitled to the year, day, and waste of the 

 freehold lands of a self-felon ; as we find that in 1289 the widow of 

 Aubrey or Albert (Alberici) de Wytelesbury gave 300/. to the king 

 (Edw. I.) to have all the goods and chattels of her husband, " a felon 

 by drowning himself," saving to the king the year, day, and waste of 

 Aubrey's lands and tenements. (2 Madox, ' Exch.,' 347.) 



The fact that a self-felony has been committed is ascertained by an 

 inquest or inquisition taken before the coroner or other officer having 

 authority to hold inquests, upon view of the dead body, and examina- 

 tion of witnesses in the presence of a jury, summoned, as in other 

 cases, to inquire into the cause of a sudden or violent death. 

 [CORONKR.] 



Where a self-felony is found by the inquisition, the jury ought also 

 lit inquire and find whether the party had any, and, if any, what goods 

 and chattels at the time when the felony was committed. But an 

 omission in this respect may be supplied by an inquisition taken by 

 the sheriff under a writ De melius inquirendo, or " further inquiry." 

 The property in the self-felon's goods, upon being found in either of 

 these modes, is vested in the crown with relation to the time of the 

 felony, so as to make any intermediate dealing with the property void 

 as against the crown. 



The crown Ukes the property of the felon subject to no liability in 

 respect of his debts or engagements. But upon a memorial presented 

 to the treasury by a creditor, a warrant is generally obtained, authoris- 

 ing the grant of fetters of administration to such creditor, who, upon 



ARTS ASD SCI. DIV. VOL. VII. 



such grant being made, acquires the ordinary rights, and becomes sub- 

 ject to the ordinary liabilities of a personal representative. 



It was formerly usual for the crown to make grants to its servants 

 and favourites of the property arising from these and other forfeitures. 

 These grants were either of particular forfeitures, or of forfeitures 

 accruing within a particular district. Grants of the latter description 

 were usually made in fee simple, and many such grants are still iu 

 force in various parts of England. 



The finding of the jury is not conclusive either as to the fact of 

 self -felony or as to the property of the deceased; and all persons 

 interested in controverting any part of the finding may plead to the 

 inquisition, and contest its insufficiency by a demurrer, or deny its 

 truth by a traverse. The issues, of law or of fact, raised upon such 

 pleadings, are disposed of as in other cases. Formerly coroners 

 returned their inquests into the court of King's Bench, in order that 

 process might issue against those who made seizures, set up claims, or 

 withheld property or debts in derogation of the rights of the crown. 

 But since the 4 & 5 Will, and Mary, c. 22, that practice has been dis- 

 continued ; and the course now is, for any party who considers him- 

 self aggrieved by the finding of the coroner's jury, to remove the 

 inquisition by Certiorari into the court of Queen's Bench, when if in 

 consequence of some legal defect the inquisition cannot be supported, 

 the court will quash it without putting the party to the expense of a 

 demurrer. If however the inquisition be good in substance, the 

 coroner may be ordered to amend defects in form. 



Neither self-felony nor any other crime can be committed by a child 

 who has not attained years of discretion ; nor can it be committed by 

 a person who, by disease or otherwise, has lost, or has been prevented 

 from acquiring, the faculty of discerning right from wrong. A ten- 

 dency to self-destruction is common in several species of insanity, and 

 the connection between the morbid affection and the act of violence 

 which occasions death may often be very distinctly traced. It not 

 unfrequently happens however that cases arise in which it is nearly 

 impossible to determine whether the act is to be ascribed to a diseased 

 state of the mental faculties, or to passions which are not under tho 

 ordinary restraint. 



At common law, which in this respect follows the canon law, a per- 

 son found by inquest to be felo de se is considered as having died in 

 mortal sin; and his remains were formerly interred in the public 

 highway without the rights of Christian burial, and a stake was driven 

 through the body : but by the 4 Geo. IV., c. 52, the coroner or other 

 officer by whom the inquest is held is required to give directions for 

 the private interment of the remains of any person against whom a 

 finding of felo de se shall be had, without any stake being driven 

 through the body, in the churchyard or other burial-ground of tho 

 parish in which the remains of such person might by the laws or 

 customs of England be interred, if the verdict of felo de se had not 

 been found; such interment to be made within twenty-four hours 

 from the finding of the inquisition, and to take place within the hours 

 of nine and twelve at night, without performance of any of the rites of 

 Christian burial. 



The Code Pdnal of France contains, no legislation on the subject of 

 suicide. Of the modern codes of Germany, some adopt the silence of 

 the French code, and others vary in their particular provisions. In the 

 Bavarian and Saxon codes suicide is not mentioned. The Prussian code 

 forbids all mutilation of the dead body of a self-murderer under 

 ordinary circumstances ; but declares that it shall be buried without 

 any marks of respect otherwise suitable to the rank of the deceased ; 

 and it directs that if any sentence has been pronounced, it shall, as far 

 as it is feasible, be executed, due regard being had to decency and pro- 

 priety, on the dead body. Besides which, the body of a, criminal who 

 commits self-murder to escape the execution of a sentence pronounced 

 against him is to be buried at night by the common executioner, at 

 the usual place of execution for criminals. The Austrian code simply 

 provides that the body of a self-murderer shall be buried by the 

 officers of justice, but not in a churchyard or other place of common 

 interment. 



SUIT is a legal term used in different senses. The word secta, which 

 is the Latin form, is from " sequor," to follow ; and hence the general 

 meaning of the word may be deduced. 



1. A suit is a proceeding by which any legal or equitable right is 

 enforced in a court of justice. Where the remedy is sought in a court 

 of law, the term is synonymous with action ; when the proceeding is 

 in equity, the term suit is alone used. It is also applied to proceedings 

 in the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts. 



2. Suit of court, in the sense of an obligation to follow, that is, to 

 attend, and to assist in constituting a court, is either real or personal. 



Suit-real, or rather suit regal, is the obligation under which all the 

 residents within a leet or town are bound to attend the king's 6riminal 

 court for the district, whether held before the king's officer and called 

 the sheriff's tourn, or held before the grantees of leets or the officers of 

 such grantees, and called courts-leet. [LEET.] 



Suit- personal is an obligation to attend the civil courts of the lord 

 under whom the suitor holds lands or tenements ; as in manors 

 [MANORS] where there are copyhold, that is, customary estates, the 

 custom imposes upon the copyholder an obligation to attend the lord's 

 customary court. In the case of freeholders attending as suitors the 

 county court or the court-baron (as in the case of the ancient tenants 



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