Note 507 — OF IDIOTS AND LUNATICS.

A lunatic who would have been convicted of a capital crime but for the plea of lunacy, may recover, and claim his liberty, as was the case of Hadfield, who shot at his late Majesty, and who presented a petition for enlargement to the House of Commons. It is more than doubtful whether such applications should ever be complied with; a man restored to sanity under coercion may very quickly relapse when he becomes his own master; a moderate quantity of spirits, or exposure to other irritation, may readily produce a paroxysm which may be attended with fatal consequences, either to the party himself, or, to some other. Public policy therefore requires a continuance of the restraint, however painful to the individual. If there be one case which admits of relaxation less than another, it is where injuries of the head have produced the insanity. For the trial of Hadfield, see 19 How. St. Tri. 1281.