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NOTE.

THE definition of the law of non compos, as laid down by Lord Hale, is this :- -“It is not every melancholy or hypochondriacal

distemper that denominates a man non compos, for there are few who commit this offence but are under such infirmities: but it must be such an alienation of mind as renders a person to be a madman, or frantic, or destitute of the use of reason, which will denominate him non compos."—I. Hale, 412.

A learned writer upon the subject says, that "The best rule for a jury to guide themselves by in such a case, is, to judge whether the signs of madness, that are now pretended, would avail to acquit the same person of murdering another man; if not, there is no reason why they should be urged as a plea for acquitting him of murdering himself."-Wheatley.

Chambers, in his Dictionary, explaining the meaning of non compos mentis, speaketh thus :— "Of this, in common law, there are said to be four kinds; first, an IDIOT born: secondly, he that by accident loseth his memory and understanding : thirdly, a LUNATIC, that has lucid intervals, sometimes understanding, and sometimes not: fourthly, he that by his own act, for a time, depriveth himself of his right senses, as a drunkard. But this last kind shall give no privilege to him, or his heirs."

Let the reader, after considering the law of non compos, as set forth by these writers, now attend to the evidence which was offered on this occasion. The only testimony tending to prove insanity was given by one witness, who stated, that on the Sunday preceding, (it had been before proved that the deceased was wholly negligent of all religious duties,) he did not come for his dinner at the usual time, and when he came, was in his week-day clothes, and said that he did not know that it was Sunday, that he looked dull and spoke low, which the witness observed again on Monday. The other witnesses who had seen him every day up to his death, and one of whom had been with

him great part of the morning on which he died, distinctly swore that they had seen no difference in him, and that the thought of his being out of his senses never crossed their minds. One of them stated that some time previously the deceased had expressed a wish that he was dead; and on the very morning a few hours before he died, he said, that he should not live to see the grass cut and that almost the last observation he made was when witness complained of being sleepy, the deceased said he was 66 more upon thinking than sleeping." Two hours afterwards he was found drowned in a cistern of water, about two feet deep. On the strength of this evidence, the jury, on the part of the laws of the land, declared him absolved from the guilt of self-murder: the clergyman, on the part of the laws of God and of the Church, did not dare to say the same.

Can it be believed that if the juries were instructed by the coroners, as they ought to be, that it is only this extent of madness that will justify such a verdict, one half of such verdicts, that are now, would be returned? Surely not. Whatever in the depraved parts of cities and towns may be the estimation of an oath, a jury in the country, has, in general, far too high a sense of such an obligation to trifle with it, by returning verdicts of insanity, in the absence of all reasonable proof of it. Now, if, through the neglect of the coroners, these unsound verdicts are returned, and numbers are encouraged by them to commit the same desperate sin; let the coroners consider whether they do not thus become partakers in other men's sins, and whether they are quite sure that their souls will not be brought into danger by it? For they too, as well as others, must account to God hereafter. No doubt the motive that influences them is a kind and amiable one, and if none would be injured by their acting on it, all men would praise them for doing so : but when the souls of numbers of the people are thus enticed to sin, and a great and grievous stumbling block is put in the way of the clergy who desire to act conscientiously; it is not a mistaken feeling of delicacy towards the relatives of the deceased, which can justify them in the sight of God or man, for pursuing a course fraught with such tremendous injury to the eternal in

Let it be observed, that it is not the cause of Christianity only which is promoted by the course which has been taken on this occasion, it is that of common humanity. For not the Christians only, but the Jews also, nor only Christians and Jews, but even the very heathens, have forbidden accustomed burial to those who destroy themselves. So that, whatever technical difficulties I may have to encounter, I have no reason (except where personal animosity may have been excited, or personal interest may be promoted by litigation) to calculate upon the opposition of any man who believes in a God at all. It is only the sceptic and the infidel, only the doubter of all religion, and the embracer of none, who can take satisfaction in endeavouring to crush the single-handed effort of a minister of God to lessen the amount of human misery and of human crime and that, not after a method of his own devising, but in exact fulfilment of those directions which he promised to obey, and without promising to obey which, he was not admitted to orders, or to office.

If what I have done shall, by God's grace, in any degree, be the means of preserving any single soul from the guilt of selfmurder; if it shall help to save any one family from that cold and unutterable anguish, which looks for comfort and finds none, and which such a deed inflicts upon the near and dear, all the anxiety I have suffered, all the misrepresentation and ill will that I have endured, and all the legal proceedings and penalties with which I am threatened, will be amply, amply repaid.

Let the consequences be what they may, a minister of the Church is in some respects like a minister of the State: each walks, or should walk, with a rope about his neck; and deserves to be suspended by it, if, through fear of personal annoyance, he swerve from the course of duty.

It is seldom that any great good is accomplished without some sacrifice. If the great good of diminishing, by a single instance, the frequency of this sin shall, under God's blessing, be effected by what I have done, I shall rejoice at being allowed to be the sacrifice.

East Horsley, June 17, 1833.

ARTHUR PERCEVAL.

May I be allowed to add one observation. It is this, that the circumstances of this case very clearly demonstrate the inexpediency of allowing coroners to practise as attorneys. All the vexatious proceedings which were had recourse to were the result of advice given by the individual who, first, presided at the inquest in his capacity of coroner, and, then, fomented and assisted litigation (arising out of the business of his own court) in his capacity of attorney. Every offer of accommodation on my part (and they were many, even to performing such parts of the service as I could, and only omitting the rest), was met with some such answer as this, The coroner says we dare not agree to it, and we must obey the coroner's orders." The unfounded fear of some terrible consequences, if they made up the matter, which this person instilled into their minds, had the natural effect of producing ill will, and litigation. But the attorney's advice would (perhaps) hardly have been so much attended to, if it had not been for the apparent authority which his previous office of coroner gave to it. But I forbear. My object is not to inculpate others, but to defend myself. As a misrepresentation of my conduct in this affair has had the round of the public papers, and probably biassed the public mind against me, my wish is, in the first place, to set myself right in the eyes of my countrymen, and, having done that, to forget every thing connected with it, except the consciousness of having done my duty; and the obligation I am under to a friend and neighbouring clergyman, who not entertaining the same scruples as myself, was, at last, permitted to perform the accustomed service. But it was not till every legal process by which it was vainly thought that I might be compelled to sin against God in the face of my people, by forcing my conscience, had been tried and failed, that the assistance of this kind clergyman, which had previously been rejected, was at length reluctantly accepted. May God forgive those who were concerned in this transaction?

THE END.

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