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well as idiots, the King is guardian; but as the law always imagines these accidental misfortunes may be removed, the Crown constitutes a trustee to protect their property.

Commission of lunacy.]-By the old law, in the case of an idiot, a writ de idiota inquirendo issued, but now in fact a commission issues as in the case of a lunatic, and it is seldom that the party is found an idiot from the time of his birth. To prove a man a lunatic, the Lord Chancellor grants a commission in the nature of a writ de lunatico inquirendo, to inquire into the party's state of mind. If the party be found non compos mentis, the care of his person, with a suitable allowance for his maintenance, is usually committed by the Lord Chancellor to some friend, who is then called his committee.

Lunatic asylums.]—For the care of insane persons, lunatic asylums have been erected in various parts of the country. Some are public and others are private asylums. Public lunatic asylums have been erected under various statutes, the principal of which was the 9 Geo. 4, c. 40, which has now been repealed by the 8 & 9 Vict. c. 126, which enacts that justices of the peace of every county and borough, not having a lunatic asylum, are to provide one, or unite with some other. By the 10 & 11 Vict. c. 43, this provision is further carried out and explained. These asylums are mainly designed to receive the insane paupers or insane criminals of the county classes of persons for whom it may be said in general that there is no other resource, particularly since the recent provision of the Poor Law Amendment Act, 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 76, s. 45, by which it is made penal to confine insane persons,

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who are dangerous, more than fourteen days in any workhouse. By the 1 & 2 Vict. c. 14, it is provided, as to lunatics meditating crime, that if any person shall be discovered and apprehended under circumstances that denote a derangement of mind, and a purpose of committing an indictable crime, and two justices (assisted by a medical man) shall be satisfied that he is insane, or a dangerous idiot, they may order him to be conveyed to the county lunatic asylum; or, if there be none in that county, then to some public hospital or house duly licensed for reception of insane persons. And by 3 & 4 Vict. c. 54, it is moreover enacted, with respect to insane criminals, that if any person in custody under sentence of death, transportation, or imprisonment, or under any charge, or under any other civil process, shall appear to be insane, and his insanity shall be certified by any two justices of the peace of the county, city, borough, or place where such persons shall be confined, and also by two physicians or surgeons, a principal secretary of state may direct his removal to some county lunatic asylum, or other proper receptacle for insane persons, there to remain until a like certificate has been given that his reason is restored.

These public lunatic asylums are also for the reception of insane patients who are neither paupers nor criminals, or who, being paupers, belong to other counties or places.

As to private lunatic asylums, it is provided that every such place must be licensed by the commissioners in lunacy or justices at quarter sessions, and no person is to be there received without a written order from the person sending him, and a medical certificate of two physicians, surgeons, or apothecaries, in such form prescribed by the acts, nor can even a single insane person be legally received or

taken charge of in an unlicensed house without such order and certificate, unless by his guardian or relative acting gratuitously, or by his committee appointed by the Lord Chancellor or other person intrusted by the Crown with the care of lunatics. But in the case of pauper lunatics the order is to be under the hand of one justice, or an officiating clergyman with one of the overseers or the relieving officer of the parish or union, and the medical certificate is to be signed by one physician, surgeon, or apothecary (2).

Drunkard.]-A drunkard is one who by his own acts deprives himself of memory and understanding for a time. This kind of non compos mentis shall give no privilege or benefit, but what hurt he doth his drunkenness shall aggravate. However, a defendant in an action may set up his own intoxication as a defence, if it were known to and taken advantage of by the plaintiff, because this is a fraud (m).

Liberty-habeas corpus.]-The personal liberty of the subject consists in the power of locomotion, of changing situation, or removing one's person to whatsoever place one's own inclination may direct, without imprisonment or restraint, unless by due course of law. By Magna Charta, no freeman shall be taken and imprisoned but by the lawful judgment of his equals, or by the law of the land. By the Petition of Right, 3 Chas. 1, no freeman shall be imprisoned or detained without cause shown, to which he may make answer according to law. By 16 Car. 1, c. 16 (which, however, only furthers the common law right), if any person be restrained of his liberty, by order or decree of any illegal court, or by command of the King's Majesty

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in person, or by warrant of the council-board, he shall, upon demand of his counsel, have a writ of habeas corpus to bring his body before the Court of King's Bench or Common Pleas, who shall determine whether the cause of his commitment be just, and thereupon do as to justice shall appertain. And by the Habeas Corpus Act, 13 Chas. 2, c. 2 (amended and enforced by 56 Geo. 3, c. 100), a prisoner may have a habeas corpus from any judge in theva cation, returnable immediately (unless committed for treason or felony, plainly and specially expressed in the warrant, or imprisoned for debt, or by process in any civil suit); and upon his being brought up, such judge shall discharge him upon bail (if the offence be bailable), to appear at the next ensuing court where the offence is cognisable; and all persons committed for treason or felony who shall petition in open court, the first week of the term, or the first day of the sessions after such commitment, to be brought to trial, and who shall not be indicted some time in such term or session, shall, upon motion the last day of the term or session, be let out upon bail, unless it appear upon oath that the King's witnesses could not be produced that term or session; and if such person, upon such prayer, shall not be indicted and tried the second term or session after commitment, they shall be discharged (n). And, lest this act should be evaded by demanding unreasonable bail or sureties for the prisoner's appearance, it is declared by 1 Will. and Mary, st. 2, c. 2, that excessive bail shall not be required. The confinement of a person in anywise is an imprisonment; so that keeping a man against his will in a private house, putting him in the stocks, arresting or forcibly detaining him in the street, is an imprisonment. One or two instances as to imprisonment may serve to illustrate what is here said. Thus

it was held in one case by Lord Holt (o), that where A. has a chamber adjoining the chamber of B., and has a door that opens into it, by which there is a passage to go out, and A. has another door, which C. stops, so that A. cannot go out by that, this is no imprisonment of A. by B., because A. may go out by the door in the chamber of B., though he be a trespasser by doing it. But A. may have a special action upon his case against C. In a late case (p), a plaintiff attempting to pass in a particular direction was obstructed by the defendant, who prevented him from going in any direction but one, not being that in which he had endeavoured to pass. This was held by the majority of the judges of the Queen's Bench to be no imprisonment; and this whether the plaintiff had or had not a right to pass in the first-mentioned direction. The law favours liberty, and gives an action of trespass for false imprisonment, to recover damages (q).

The King cannot send any subject of England against his will to serve him out of England, not even unto Ireland as Lord-Lieutenant there, for that would be banishment, which none but the Legislature can inflict, except in the singular instance of pressing sailors, upon urgent necessity, in the time of war. But the King, by his royal prerogative, may issue out his writ ne exeat regno, and prohibit any of his subjects from going into foreign parts without license, for this also may be necessary for the public service and safeguard of the commonwealth (r). The law, indeed, so much discourages unlawful confinement, that if a man is under duress of imprisonment until he seals a bond, or the like, he may allege this duress, and avoid the extorted bond (s). To make imprisonment lawful it must be either by process from the courts of judicature, or by warrant from some legal officer, having authority to

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