IDIOT. 



public, and such committee Is to be ap- 

 pointed for him by the Lord Chancellor, 

 whose acts are subject to the correction 

 and control of the Court of Chancery ; 

 yet such an one, whether so appointed, 

 or whether he of his own head take upon 

 him the care and management of the 

 estate of a lunatic, is but in nature of a 

 bailiff or trustee for him, and account- 

 able to him, his executors, or adminis- 

 trators. And as the committees of a lu- 

 natic have no interest, but an estate dur- 

 ing pleasure, it has been ruled, that they 

 cannot make leases, nor any ways encum- 

 ber the lunatic's estate, without a special 

 order from the Court of Chancery, where 

 the profits are not sufficient to maintain 

 the lunatic. In case of a lunatic's recove- 

 ry, he must petition the Chancellor to su- 

 persede the commission ; upon the hear- 

 ing of which the lunatic must attend in 

 person, that he may be inspected by the 

 Chancellor. It is also usual for the physi- 

 cian to attend, and to make an affidavit 

 that the lunatic is perfectly recovered. 



An idiot, or person non compos, may in- 

 herit, because the law, in compassion to 

 their natural infirmities, presumes them 

 capable of property. An idiot, or per- 

 son of non sane memory, may purchase, 

 because it is intended for their benefit, 

 and, if after recovery of their memory 

 they agree thereto, they cannot avoid it; 

 but if they die during their lunacy, their 

 heirs may avoid it ; for the> shall not be 

 subject to the contracts of persons who 

 wanted capacity to contract : so, if, after 

 their memory recovered, the lunatic, or 

 person non compos, die, without agreement 

 to the purchase, their heirs may avoid it. 

 If an ideot or lunatic marry, and die, his 

 wife shall be endowed ; for this works no 

 forfeiture, and the king has only custody 

 of the inheritance in one case, and the 

 power of providing for him and his family 

 in the other ; but in both cases the free- 

 hold and inheritance is in the idiot or lu- 

 natic ; and therefore if lands descend to 

 an idiot or lunatic after marriage, and the 

 king, on office found, takes those lands in- 

 to his custody, or grants them over to 

 another as committee in the usual man- 

 ner, yet the husband shall be tenant by 

 the courtesy, or the wife endowed, since 

 their title does not begin to any purpose 

 till the death of the husband or wife, 

 when the king's title is at end. 



It is the general rule, that idiots and 

 lunatics being by reason of their natural 

 disabilities incapable of judging between 

 good and evil, are punishable by no cri- 



minal prosecution whatsoever. And 

 therefore a person who loses his memory 

 by sickness, infirmity, or accident, and 

 kills himself, is no fdo de se And as a 

 person now compos cannot be zfelodeseby 

 killing himself, so neither can he be guilty 

 of homicide in killing another, nor of pe- 

 tit treason. If one committed for a capital 

 offence become non compos before convic- 

 tion, he shall not be arraigned; and if af- 

 ter conviction, he shall not be executed. 



There is a distinction between acts 

 done by idiots and lunatics in pais, and 

 in a court of record ; that as to those 

 solemnly acknowleged in a court of re- 

 cord, as tines and recoveries, and the 

 uses declared on them, they are good, 

 and can neitherbe avoided by themselves, 

 nor their representatives, for it is to be 

 presumed, that had they been under 

 these disabilities, the judges would not 

 have admitted them to make those ac- 

 knowledgments. Therefore, if a person 

 non compos acknowledge a fine, it shall 

 stand against him and his heirs. And to 

 acts done by them inpais, they are dis- 

 tinguished into void and voidable, though 

 as to themselves they are regularly una- 

 voidable, because no man is allowed to 

 disable himself, for the insecurity that 

 may arise in contracts from counterfeited 

 madness and folly ; besides, if the excuse 

 were real, it would be repugnant that the 

 party should know or remember what he 

 did > but their heirs and executors may 

 avoid such acts in pais, by pleading the 

 disability ; because, if they can prove it, 

 it must be presumed real, since nobody 

 can be thought to counterfeit it, when 

 he can expect no benefit from it himself. 



There are frequent instances in equity, 

 where not only idiots and lunatics, who 

 come within the protection of the law, but 

 also persons of weak understandings^ 

 have been relieved, when they appeared 

 to have been imposed upon in their deal- 

 ings, and unreasonable purchases and se- 

 curities obtained from them set aside in 

 their favour. Idiots and lunatics, during 

 their lunacy, are incapable of making any 

 will or testament, as are also persons 

 grown childish by reason of extreme old 

 age. So one actually drunk, if he be so 

 drunk as to have lost the use of his rea- 

 son : but though a person who wants un- 

 derstanding cannot make a will, yet the 

 rule herein is not to be taken from his not 

 being able to measure an ell of cloth, tell 

 twenty, or the like, but whether he have 

 sense enough to dispose of his estate with 

 understanding. 



