Note 494 — OF IDIOTS AND LUNATICS.
Reading edition
In common parlance it is called the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery; but in strictness, the care and regulation of ideots and lunatics is a branch of the king’s prerogative (17 Ed. 2. c. 9.) which is committed to the Lord Chancellor, not by delivery of the great seal, as his general jurisdiction is, but by warrant under the sign manual; therefore the appeal is to the King in Council, and not to the House of Lords; and neither the Master of the Rolls nor the Vice Chancellor can sit for the Chancellor, or make any orders in matters of lunacy.