Criminal lunatics : are they responsible? : being an examination of 'the plea of insanity,' in a letter to the Right Hon. the Lord High Chancellor / by J. Russell Reynolds.

  • Reynolds, J. Russell (John Russell), Sir, 1828-1896.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Criminal lunatics : are they responsible? : being an examination of 'the plea of insanity,' in a letter to the Right Hon. the Lord High Chancellor / by J. Russell Reynolds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    and because the errors committed through inadvertence in some portion of the work, have been allowed to remain uncor- rected, and thus affect the whole after-process. The dicta of humanity are the statements of what is truth for the time being, in regard to those classes of fact with which there is only a partial acquaintance. The answers given to many questions are of a provisional nature only, embracing the sum of knowledge at the time, and not pretending to compre- hend that which will be, or may be afterwards acquired. Its dicta may be incorrect through bigotry or ignorance; and there may be again, as there have been before, Martyrs of Science; but prejudice and imperfect acquaintance with facts must gradually or eventually yield to the force of conscience and the growth of knowledge. Our trials by jury proceed upon the supposition that where twelve men hear the statement of a case and the evidence adduced, and, acting uprightly, arrive at the same conclusion, that conclusion is the right one. If the evidence is sufficient to convince one man, it is sufficient to convince twelve; it it is insufficient to convince twelve, it ought not to convince one, or any one. The consent of opinion is the test of truth; and the “debates” in our own country at the present day, as well as the tine polemics of all ages, are but so many appeals to the universal common sense, and so many expressions of the belief of their authors that the mind acts according to fixed laws of thought, and that universal assent is the object to be attained, inasmuch as it conveys with it the stamp of tiutli. 2nd. The concurrence of human opinion is the standard ot appeal as to what is right and what is wrong. There are two classes of obligation which it is convenient practically to sepa- rate, although it is the effort, or avowed effort of nations and of lawgivers to make these two identical. There is, on the one hand, the abstract, absolute, unconditioned right and wrong ; and, on the other, the concrete, social, or contingent. The first includes many groups of actions of which the second takes no cognisance : the latter embraces many particulars and de- tails which do not, as such, enter into the requirements of the former. The actions of our inmost life are tried by an internal court; the conduct of our outer life is tried by an external