A NEW CHIME. . Ipr 



his fortune in dissipation, and closes his career with strychnine or a bullet, " Tem- 

 porary Aberration " is what was the trouble with him. 



Is not this insanity plea becoming rather common ? Is it not so common that 

 the reader confidently expeats to see it offered in every criminal case that comes 

 before the courts ? And is it not so cheap, and so common, and often so trivial^ 

 that the reader smiles in derision when the newspaper mentions it ? And is it not 

 curious to note how very often it wins acquittal for the prisoner ? Of late years 

 it does not seem possible for a man to so conduct himself, before killing another 

 man, as not to be manifestly insane. If he talks about the stars, he is insane. If 

 he appears nervous and uneasy an hour before the killing, he is insane. If he 

 •weeps over a great grief, his friends shake their heads, and fear that he is " not 

 right." If, an hour after the murder, he seems ill at ease, pre-occupied and excited, 

 he is unquestionably insane. • 



Really, what we want now, is not laws against crime, but a law against insanity^ 

 There is where the true evil lies. 



