SPEECHES OF LORD ERSKINE, WHEN AT THE BAR, &c. SPEECH FOR JAMES HADFIELD, IN THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH, ON A TRIAL AT BAR, ON THE 26th of APRIL, A. D. 1800. PREFACE. THE occasion of the trial of James Hadfield for high treason, in shooting at the King, at Drury Lane play-house, is too well remem. bered to require much preface. All the facts, besides, which led to the prosecution, and which ended in the acquittal of the defendant, on the ground of his having committed the act under the dominion of insanity, are fully detailed in the following defence by his counsel. The successful issue of this trial, notwithstanding the warm and just interest which the whole nation took in the life of a Prince, who had reigned in their affections for so many years, must ever be considered as a most striking instance of that cool, deliberate, and impartial administration of justice, which, since the glorious Revolution (for we can go no higher), has distinguished this country. What renders this speech the more interesting and important, is the few instances which have occurred in our courts, where it has become necessary to consider, and with the utmost precision to determine, in what cases mental derangement ought to be held to emancipate such unhappy persons from responsibility to the laws, for acts of great atrocity and violence. It is by no means every departure from sound reason and intellect, though sufficient to ground a commission of lunacy, and to deprive an individual of the management of his concerns, that would deliver him from an indictment of murder, or other criminal act of violence; the act itself must appear to have been committed under the full do. minion of insanity; and Lord Erskine, therefore took his stand upon the surest and safest ground, as it related to the safety of the public; and, therefore, the surest and safest for the unhappy prisoner; having, probably, a full security in bringing his case within his principle, as appeared by the result of the trial, he took his claim of impunity as low as possible, and properly maintained the privilege of indemnity for those distempered persons ONLY, who commit crimes under the dominion of morbid delusions; but by no means extending to those whose insanity, without delusion, is principally characterized by violence and turbulent passion. The principle is of the utmost importance, and the more so from the assent which it received from the court of King's Bench, on a solemn trial at the bar. Lord Kenyon appeared much against the prisoner, in the course of the evidence for the crown: but after the disclosure of the prin ciple on which his defence was grounded, and the statement of the evidence which would be given to support it, he became convinced, as it was proceeded on; and on its coming up to the principal facts detailed in the following speech, his Lordship, with that justice and feeling which eminently marked his character, delivered his opinion to the Attorney-General (as the opinion of the whole court), that the trial should not be further proceeded in; which being acquiesced in by the present Lord Redesdale, then attor ney-general, and the other counsel for the crown, no reply was made to the prisoner's defence and he was acquitted. It was said at the time, that the very learned counsel for the crown were not entirely satisfied with the view taken of the case by the court (but of the truth of which we have no means of information). Be that, however, as it may-it is one of the noblest features in the practice of our criminal law, that, although counsel are by no means bound to acquiesce in an opinion by the judges, adverse to a prisoner upon a capital trial; yet when the opinion is in favor of lifeabove all, upon the view taken, even by a single judge, much more by a whole court, upon the evidence for the party accused; it would not be considered consonant to the mild characteristic of our laws for the ministers of the crown to step beyond the judges in the demand of cri minal justice. |